Someone like you
by melinagarcia
Summary: Gabriella's the type of girl who loves to curl up with a good book. Troy's the guy who's president of his fraternity. Unlikely pair, for sure. But she can't seem to stay away... and neither can he.
1. Chapter 1

"Can you lighten up a bit? It's not the end of the world that you and Brian are no longer together..."

I stopped Hannah by putting my hand up and shaking my head, "No, I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm just not in the mood to be here."

I'm not. Like, at all.

This isn't even really my scene, to be honest.

Frat parties. I just don't belong here. House parties? Yeah, I guess. But frat parties are a whole different ballgame and I honestly don't know how Hannah suckered me into coming. It's been three years at this college and I've somehow managed to avoid these things. But she's been obsessed with frat parties and I don't know why. Well, I do. She loves to dance and have a good time and this is the place to be for that.

She rolled her eyes at me as she handed me a beer, "Gabs, you're 21 years old. This is exactly where you need to be. You've been in a relationship for like most of your time in college. You need to get back out there and I don't know, hook up. Date around."

Hook up and date around? Does my best friend not know me at all or what? "I'm a relationship girl, Han."

"I know," she took a chug of her beer, "I'm just saying, there's nothing wrong with hook ups here and there. No strings attached. You should try it sometime, it's working great for me. AND it's how you meet people."

Yeah, I guess so. I don't know.

Like, she's not a slut and she respects herself so I know she's not having sex, but she is making out with guys left and right and I have no problem with that, but it's just not me. I'm a relationship girl. I don't want to just hook up with a guy just to hook up with him because chances are, he's hooking up with other girls as well and that just doesn't sit well with me. Yes, we're seniors in college, but whatever. I'm fine being this way. There's nothing wrong with it.

I looked around and it's pretty crazy. My other friend Peyton is doing a keg stand while people are cheering her on. Seriously? How is this fun and why would anyone join a stupid fraternity? It's gross. And lame. And I'm being judgmental, but it's just not my thing... at all.

"Gabriella!"

I turned around and all of a sudden saw Hannah laughing and dancing around with some guy and he was pretty cute so I guess I was happy for her?

Whatever, though. I made my way through the Sigma Pi house and went to the kitchen where there were a few people, but not many which wasn't that surprising. The booze wasn't just in the kitchen, it was literally all over the house. How do they live like this? So gross.

I made my way through a couple that was making out and got to the sink where I emptied my cup of beer.

"Why are you wasting beer like that?" I heard a voice say behind me. "It's expensive."

I turned around, almost immediately, and the second my eyes landed on this guy, I think I stopped breathing.

This guy was fucking hot. No, he was beautiful. He had the bluest of eyes to the point where they were, like, glistening and you couldn't look away from them. Well, he was probably drunk, maybe that's why. But seriously, he's fucking gorgeous. Like, hottest guy I've ever laid my eyes on.

And this is embarrassing. "Oh, um, I'm..."

"I'm kidding," he smiled, interrupting me, "it's not expensive, but it's also not good to waste."

I didn't really know what to say so I sort of just smiled and he laughed it off and made his way towards me more which made me move over to the side. He threw some empty beer cans into the sink and grabbed some cups, along with my empty one and threw it in the trash.

"Thanks," I tell him, still sort of embarrassed. I'm only embarrassed because this guy is fucking hot. And I'm honestly tongue tied.

He rinsed off his hands, shot me another smile and then just walked out. I watched him walk away and laugh into a group of girls. Of course.

Peyton came up to me laughing and looking all kinds of drunk and I tried holding her up, but it was only making me laugh as well even though drunk people are the absolute worst. I hate taking care of them. I hate having to deal with them. But she's my best friend so what else am I supposed to do?

"I'm soooo drunk," she slurs out as she grabs my hair and crosses it across my face, playing with it, "and I wish my boyfriend was here."

Yeah, I wish he was here, too, because then she wouldn't be this drunk since he doesn't really drink. "Do you wanna get out of here? Are you tired?" Please say yes, please say yes.

But she shakes her head, "No, no, no, I just want to dance!"

Of course she does. Ugh. I want to get out of here. But I don't know if I want to leave my friends.

So I didn't. I hung out with Peyton while Hannah mingled with some friends and people she didn't even know. Probably trying to hook up with some hot guy.

But 30 minutes later, I really was not feeling it. I was so tired. It was like midnight and all I really wanted to do was crawl into my bed.

So I called my brother and asked him to come pick me up. Peyton and Hannah had their ride homes covered so I didn't really feel bad about leaving. Pretty sure if I was anyone else, this party would have been so much fun since it is a last day of summer sort of party so it's "off the hook" or whatever people say these days. But it's just not my thing. And my friends are trying to make it our thing and I'd much rather just go home and go to sleep or something.

But as I'm waiting out front for my brother, I hear someone say something.

"Oh, hey, it's the girl who wastes beer."

I turned my head to the side and saw the hot guy from the kitchen. Man, he's beautiful. And he's smiling at me. And I don't know what to say.

So he said something else. "I'm just messing with you."

Why does he keep saying that? Do I look terrified about it or something? I don't give a fuck that he saw me dump that. I mean, I did feel bad when he said it was expensive, but then I thought about it and realized that it's not and I hardly dumped that much so now I don't even care.

"Whatever," I mumble. It's an awful comeback but I don't really care. I'm tired.

He comes closer to me and I see his incredible features up close. Blue eyes, amazing bone structure, flawless skin. Oh my gosh. Why is he so hot? "How come I haven't seen you around?"

Umm. Because I never come to these parties. "I don't know..." Lame. Lame answer, Gabriella.

This guy laughed a bit as he ran his hand through his hair, "you don't talk much, do you?"

Actually, I talk a LOT. Ask anyone who knows me. I could easily strike up a conversation with this guy, but I don't want to. He's obviously a frat guy. And he's obviously used to girls throwing themselves at him. So... no thanks.

"I do, actually," I tell him, putting my phone in my back pocket, "I'm just not really in the mood right now."

He nodded as he grabbed a piece of gum from his jean pocket and threw it in his mouth, "Well, hope to see you around..."

And as soon as he left and was out of sight, my brother pulled up to pick me up. Thank God. I hopped in the car, buckled up and stared out the window and saw this guy one last time laughing with a few girls who were on their way out as well. Pretty sure this is why I hate these parties.

Guys all over girls, girls all over guys, booze, weed, loud music. Everything I don't like. Which is ironic, really, but I was basically dragged so.

I'm just so glad this night is over with.

* * *

"Do you wanna come to another party with me tonight?"

I looked up from cutting my french toast in pieces and couldn't even believe the question. Two parties in a weekend? Uhhhh. "Pey, no, they're not for me."

She rolled her eyes and stuffed a piece of her pancake in her mouth before washing it down with her water. "Come on, it's your senior year! I know they're not really your thing anymore, but you're social, so why not? It'll be fun."

Yeah, I can keep up at parties. I can make conversation with anyone, I can drink with anyone, but I don't really care to. Getting drunk is not at the top of my list of things to do on a Friday night.

"It's not a frat party, it's at my friend Michael's house, his parents are out of town and it'll be fun. He's from here!"

Okay, I still don't want to, but I can't say no because if one of my friends was having a house party, I'd probably go. I mean, I went to them in high school and I still go to them now. It's just such a different vibe. But ugh, fine. "Okay, what time?"

She squealed and clapped her hands together like a weirdo in the middle of this restaurant, "I don't know, maybe 9 or so. I'll pick you up since I'm not drinking, I'm just in the mood to dance my ass off and party. It'll be fun."

If she says so. "Do you ever think we're missing out because we don't live in the dorms and we're locals?"

Peyton gave me a weird look as she grabbed her orange juice and took a sip. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know," I shrugged, "I mean, yeah, we've made a ton of college friends, but sometimes I feel like we're left out of things happening on campus since we're not there 24/7, you know?"

I think she got it now. "Ohhh, no, I don't think so. Yeah, we're not there and shit, but it's probably because we're not in sororities or any clubs, I don't think it really has anything to do with being locals and living at home. Do you know how lucky we are? My mom makes me dinner still!"

Mine does too! I laughed it off. "It's silly, just yesterday these girls were talking and I overheard their conversation and I honestly knew nothing of what they were speaking of and I'm like, am I missing out? Should I have gone away for college?"

"No," Peyton shakes her head, "I would have missed you way too much. And so would Hannah. And well, at the time, Brian."

I rolled my eyes, "for the millionth time, we were just friends then. Seriously. We didn't get together until our second year of college!"

"Are you guys okay?"

"We don't really talk," I tell her, "but I don't hate him. A year and a half is a long time when you're young, yeah, but it also wasn't enough time for me to fall head over heels in love with him to the point where I want to make a long distance relationship work, ya know? Too much."

Peyton shook her head. "Still, I think he should have figured out what he wanted before getting into a relationship."

I know, which is why we broke up. He wanted to go away for school to get his bachelor's and I wasn't going to transfer anywhere with him. "I'm over it. My last year here and then I'll find my dream man. Somewhere far away from San Diego..."

"At law school where everyone will be just as smart as you?"

"Shut up," I laughed, "no, they don't have to be as smart as me. Brian was at community college, for crying out loud AND he was a year younger. I'm not shallow. I'm just sick of immature people. Like, grow up. We're 21 years old."

Peyton nodded, "True. I'm so glad I'm off the market. Dating seems so hard right now."

Yeah, she's been off the market for almost three years and I was jealous of her. Yes, they're young, but I have a feeling her and her boyfriend will make it to the alter and I'm so excited for her because he's a great guy. One time, he didn't know I was at the mall when he was there and I saw him talking to some girl with some of his buddies and this girl was laughing at him, flirting, touching his shoulder and he straight up told her that he had a girlfriend. Like, full on just rejecting her. And I mean, I love Peyton and I think she's gorgeous, but this girl was, too. And ever since then, I've been the biggest Peyton and Liam supporter. He really loves her. And she really loves him. And that's what I want. I want a love like theirs.

"Yeah, and Liam's so mature. He already knows what he wants to do and shit. Plus, he's good looking. You hit the jackpot."

She smiled at shook her head, slightly embarrassed, "shut up. You can have someone just like him easily. You're the best catch I know..."

Ahhh, best friends. They're the best. Always there to boost your ego and make you feel more important than you actually are. "I'm okay right now. I really just want to get through this year."

"Me too," she tells me, "what better way than with start of school parties!?"

Ugh, I guess. Whatever. I'll go tonight and I'll have a good time.

* * *

"Do you want a drink?"

The one thing my mom taught me in life that she told me to absolutely follow, no matter what, is never let a stranger get you a drink.

"No, thanks." I turned around, but he didn't leave.

He was still here and trying to get in my view so I finally just turned to him so he could say what he wanted to say "What's your name, beautiful?"

Okay, this guy was good looking, but he just creeped me the fuck out. Like, I don't want him to know my name and I don't want to know his name and I'm never taking a drink from him, ever. "Oh, don't worry about it."

He laughed it off and took a sip of whatever he was drinking from his red cup, "come on. Lighten up. We're at a party."

"I know we are," I tell him, "that doesn't mean I have to tell you my name or take a drink from you."

I tried to move past him, but he stepped to the side and blocked me. I turned the other way and he did the same thing again. Ugh. I really wasn't in the mood for this. I actually was having a good time with my friends, but he suddenly put a damper on everything and now I just want to go home.

Once again, I tried to push past him, but nope.

"Come on," he says, "one drink."

NO. I shake my head and try to get by AGAIN. "I don't want one, please move..."

But he wasn't. He put his hand on my arm and ugh, no. I moved it away immediately be he reached for it again. "It's okay, I like a challenge," he told me, creepily, and I just really want to get the hell out of here. "just tell me your name and I'll move."

I really did not want to tell him my name. It's just a name, but it'll mean he won and I really don't want that.

"Mac! Move."

He looked behind me and his eyes immediately widened and it looked like he saw a ghost. I turned around and saw the guy from last night.

Mac? That's his name? He immediately let go of my arm and sort of moved over to the side and past me to this guy, looking all sorts of apologetic. "Yo, sorry man, didn't know she was with you. I'm... I'll, I'll just leave now."

With him? Um. No. I'm definitely not with him. The guy left and I was standing here, silently really happy with this guy that he got rid of Mac for me. He looked over at me and gave me a small smile before he took a sip of his beer, I'm guessing.

"Thanks," I tell him quietly as I pushed some hair out of my face. It was also slightly embarrassing. I should be fully able to take care of myself.

He shrugged, "Mac's... well, you're lucky I came by."

Umm okay, whatever that means. "Yeah, okay, thanks," I turn around to go find my friends and forget about this whole thing.

But this guy comes after me.

"Wait," he calls out and I turn around and look into his beautiful blue eyes. They were so captivating. "Are you okay? He can be a little... aggressive."

I looked down at my arm and there was a red mark, but I'm sure it'll be gone in a minute. I was completely fine and unharmed. Thank God. "Yeah, I'm good. Thanks." It's all I could really say. What else would I tell him?

"Do you want a drink?"

Again, I turned around and was faced with those blue eyes. And for a few seconds, I actually thought about it. But then I snapped out of it. "No, thanks."

He laughed and I have no idea why. Like, he's giggling to myself and it's actually really annoying me.

"What?"

"No, nothing," he tells me, "why even come to these parties?"

Uhh excuse me? Okay, fine, it was a legitimate question coming from him. I mean, yesterday, he caught me throwing out beer and bailing kind of early. And today, I'm passing up drink offers. It's like I'm the first girl to say no to a drink from him. If I am, I feel pretty special about it. It's not that I wouldn't mind some rum and coke, but I'm the designated driver tonight and I'm not jeopardizing that. He could think I'm boring for all I care.

"You don't know me," I tell him, "I'd love nothing more than to down some shots of tequila but I can't so fuck you." Maybe I didn't have to tell him to fuck off or whatever, but it just came out.

He smiled at me, though, like he enjoyed it. "What's your name?"

My name? He wants to know my name? Umm. Okay all of a sudden I feel a little nervous and I don't know why. Maybe because he's incredibly good looking and he wants to know my name. But I have to chill out. Fuck. Here it goes. "Um, Gabriella."

"Gabriella," he says, "I like it."

And before he could sucker me in anymore with those blue eyes, I turn around and walk off to find my friends.

I think I actually need a drink now. Ugh.


	2. Chapter 2

Sure, the first day of school for college is the easiest day of the year, but I still don't want to be here.

I just want to be back in high school when everything was easy and you could turn in assignments late or not even turn them in at all and still get an A. And when going to parties was simple and you just had fun with the people you knew. You didn't have to worry about much. Just what to wear to school.

"Gabs?"

I snapped out of my thoughts as Hannah waved a bag in front of me, "Oh, what? Sorry."

She gave me a weird look as she passed me my muffin, "You okay?"

"I'm fine," I tell her. I am. I just want to be done with school already, go far away to law school, and then come back and start my life. This is all taking way too long. "Just tired. I can't believe it's the first day of senior year already. It went by so fast."

Hannah shook her head, "I know, right? It seems like it was yesterday we were starting our senior year of HIGH SCHOOL in our new outfits that we bought and look at us now..."

We looked down at our outfits. I was in yoga pants, a gray plain shirt and some Nike running shoes. She was in the same outfit, coincidentally.

"We're not even trying anymore," I laughed.

I didn't care. Sure, I wear normal clothes 50% of the time, but the other 50, I'm in work out clothes. Do I work out? Yeah, sometimes, but the clothes are just really comfortable and dressing for college is dressing for comfort. Everyone knows that. Well, except the freshmen.

"So where's your next class?" Hannah asks me as we take a seat at one of the table outside Starbucks on campus, "mine's over there..."

She pointed behind me and that sucks. That building has the worst reception. "Have fun with that. Mine is by the student center."

Hannah rolled her eyes as she took a sip of her coffee, "Lucky."

I looked around at the crowded campus. It was always so crowded looking the first day of school. Well, like the first few weeks. But then everyone starts ditching once they get into their routine and campus gets less crowded. There were so many cute boys walking by, so many girls wearing outfits to impress, professors hurrying to class and just students trying to get their education on. Ha. I should probably head to class.

But then I spotted someone. And my heart stopped.

Which was so weird.

"So you do go to school," the hot guy from the party who saved me from that guy tells me as he comes up to our table, "you don't just party all the time."

Okay, it made me crack a smile. This guy has a sense of humor. And he's hot? And he's in school? He even looks hotter than before and it's freaking SCHOOL. He's in jeans, converse and just a plain black t-shirt and it doesn't look like he's trying at all. So hot.

I looked over at Hannah who was smirking a bit and just sitting back. "No, but I wish I was at a party right now." Ahh, lame comeback, Gabs.

But he laughed so maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought, right?

And then Hannah got up. "I should go if I don't want to be late for class," she grabbed her drink and her muffin and stuffed it in her purse, "um, yeah, text me later and tell me where to meet you for lunch."

She shot a small smile at this guy before turning around and walked in the opposite direction this guy came from.

It was just the two of us now. But I had to get to class. It's close, but what am I going to do? Just sit here by myself? No, thank you. "I should go, too," I get up and tell him even though I'm not sure he's paying attention since he has his head turned and is looking at something.

Probably watching gorgeous Hannah walk away or something. Yeah, that's it.

But then he turns back, "Where ya headed?"

"Um, Peterson Hall."

He smiles slightly at me as he puts his phone in his pocket. "Same. Let's walk together."

Oh, umm. No, thank you. But how can I tell him that? We're seriously headed in the same direction and there's no shortcut way to get there. Actually, I think there is and I think we'd be taking it so I'm screwed. It's not a big deal, I just don't really want to make small talk with this guy. And I really don't understand why he would want to make small talk with me. It's just a very weird situation and I can't really believe I'm in it, to be honest.

"Sure," I tell him, against my own will. I grab my muffin, stuff it in my bag as well and grab my drink off the table.

I don't even know this guy's name and we're walking together to class. And on top of that, he's insanely hot and it's making me kind of nervous.

We walk in silence for about a minute and so far, so good. No small talk. No forced laughter that I dread if small talk were to ensue. Just us walking to class together. It's fine. It's cool.

"I'm Troy, by the way," he tells me.

I turn my head towards him and he's giving me a small smile. Troy. What a strong name. I've never met a Troy before. I just smile at him kind of lamely. And then I think about telling him my name again in case he's forgotten. Maybe that's why he told me his so I could just tell him mine. Maybe he thinks he could trick me into thinking I didn't already tell him my name at the party, but nope. I remember clearly. I did.

But I don't want him to feel dumb, so I start to tell him mine...

"Gabriella, yeah, I know," he smiles at me slightly, "give me some credit."

Oh. How embarrassing. "No, yeah, I... sorry." It was pretty much all I could say. I wouldn't have been offended if he hadn't remembered. We were at a party, he was probably drunk so who cares. It happens.

"What class do you have?"

"Art history."

He smiled at me, "Me too." Ohhhh great. "No, just kidding. I already took that. You'll like it. Well, if you're into art."

I'm interested in it, but I wouldn't say I'm into it. Wait. What if he was in my class? Would that have been a good thing? Are we going to become friends or what? "Yeah, it's cool. Maybe I'll be into it after this class then."

Troy sort of just nods and before I know it, he's opening the door for me to enter the building and I'm walking through it.

I turn around to wait for him, which I don't know why, since he stopped and said hi to some guy. I tried to make it obvious that I wasn't waiting because that would have been embarrassing, so I crouched down and lifted my sock up a bit, adjusting my shoe.

And by the time I stood back up, he caught up to me. "I guess I'll see ya after," he tells me and I'm not sure he will, but I think it's just something to say.

Yeah, maybe. I smile at him and sort of nod as he walks away and I turn to the right and head into the classroom.

Man, he's so hot. Even when he's walking away.

* * *

"So who was that guy?"

Of course Hannah's going to ask me about it. "What guy?" I played dumb as I dipped my chip in guacamole and carefully brought it over to my mouth.

Hannah rolled her eyes as she grabbed some chips with guacamole as well, "You know who."

Right. Troy. The guy who I actually did end running into after class. He wasn't waiting for me, but the second I emerged from the classroom, he was walking up. If I hadn't been paying attention or he hadn't, we probably would have literally ran into each other.

And then we walked out together and to the parking lot since we were both done for the day. I learned that he's not from here exactly, but he doesn't live far. Laguna Beach. It's about an hour away without any traffic. He says he likes it here and that he's glad he left home even though it's not that far at all. It made me feel a bit embarrassed that I didn't leave home, but he didn't think anything of it. Just said something along the lines of, "it's not for everyone" meaning leaving home and yeah, I agree. It definitely wasn't for me. So here I am. 5 minutes away from my house having Mexican food with my best friend.

"Just some guy," I tell her, "I met him the other night at that party and then just ran into him at school. Weird."

Hannah looked intrigued. "Gabs, he's HOT. Are you going to get at that?"

Huh? Girls "get at" that? I thought it was a guy thing. "No, Han, I hardly know the guy. We've had a conversation of like ten minutes total. That day at the party AND today. He's just this guy."

"A really hot guy," she added, "come on. Live a little."

Live a little? What does she want me to do? Hook up with him? "Han, he's WAY out of my league. There's no way I'm 'getting' at that."

Hannah rolled her eyes as she grabbed her coke and slid it in front of her, "Oh please, Gabriella. You're fucking hot. And any guy would be lucky to have you. If it's not this guy, find someone else and have FUN. Seriously. It's not all that bad."

Maybe she's right. I know I'm a relationship girl, but it's college. Do I seriously think I'm going to find my soul mate here? Probably not. I should have fun.

"I wouldn't even know where to begin."

She smiled, "And that's where I come in, obviously. You meet someone at a party, flirt, I know you're good at flirting, you're not shy at all. And then bam, make out. On to the next one. No strings attached. Before you know it, you'll be a pro."

Like her? She was an excellent hooker upper. If that's even a word. She knows how to get a guy and then casually just leave them. I was kind of jealous.

"I don't know, Han, it's not really me and you know that."

"I know," she sighed, "and I know it's been three months since you and Brian broke up, I just feel like you're in a rut and maybe getting back in the dating game will be good, you know? You never know who you'll meet. Maybe someone you'll date for a little while."

Hmm maybe. I don't know. It's not me and I don't want it to end in disaster. "I know how to flirt, but I definitely don't know how to pick up guys."

She laughed, throwing her head back, which I don't know why. It wasn't that funny. "You're one of those girls who won't even need to pick up the guy, they will pick you up. Trust me."

I do trust her, but maybe not in this. In every other aspect of my life, yes.

"Come with me to a party this week. It's a frat party, but that's the best way to meet guys. I promise."

Ugh, I guess. "Fine, but if I'm not feeling it, I'm leaving and you can't be mad at me because at least I'm giving it a chance," I tell her, grabbing some more chips, "but I'm probably going to fail miserably."

"Eek!" she clapped her hands together, "this is going to be so much fun. I can't wait!"

Uhhh, I can. I can for sure wait. Ugh.


	3. Chapter 3

"Here," Hannah passes me a drink on Friday night, "liquid courage."

I rolled my eyes but took it anyway, "I don't need liquid courage. I'm fine." Okay, maybe I did. I took a sip of this rum and coke and immediately wanted to down it, but I knew I probably shouldn't. I had to pace myself. "Thanks."

She smiled at me and eyed the room. "Okay, see any hotties?"

I did actually, but I didn't know about them. "That guy's not that bad," I pointed him out.

"Oh no," Hannah tells me, "hooked up with him last week. Terrible kisser. Terrible."

Oh my gosh. Ha. "Hannah," I laugh with her, "then I don't know. You pick someone for me, I guess."

She looked around the room with excitement and landed on a guy. He had dark hair and I couldn't see his eyes exactly, but I think they were light. He was dressed casually, a red cup in his hand as he was talking to a few guys. He turned for a second and I was able to see his face fully. He was pretty cute.

"That guy," she tells me before pushing me, "go."

I stopped myself and went back to her. "No, I'm not just going to go up to him."

Hannah rolled her eyes, "Fine, come with me," she grabbed me by the arm and led me over to where he was, "I'm going to push you slightly into him and the rest is in your hands, okay?"

"Han, no," I tried telling her but it was too late. She grabbed my hand and brought me even closer.

She casually was going to bump me into him, but someone ended up bumping into Hannah pretty hard which resulted into me bumping into this guy pretty hard and of course he spilled his drink all over my shirt.

ALL OVER IT.

I looked around for Hannah, but she was already gone. I don't even think she realized what had happened. Oh my gosh. Embarrassing.

"You okay?" he asks me, looking down at my shirt. Thank God it's not a white shirt, but oh my gosh. This is a fucking nightmare. "I'm sorry."

He's sorry? Ha. It was all Hannah's fault. "No, it's okay. I'm.. I'm sorry I bumped into you."

He smiled at me and then picked up his cup he dropped in the process. It was empty now because his beer was all over me. Well just my shirt. A little on my pants, but those were black. "I'll go get you some paper towels," he tells me and I'm confused about this whole thing.

I bumped into him pretty hard and he doesn't even seem to be mad about it. Ah, is this working? Is he interested? Am I going to hook up with him?

Before he could leave to get some towels, though, a voice interrupted.

"I got it."

I looked up and saw Troy standing there with a small smile on his face. What is going on here? Why does he always show up out of absolutely no where?

This guy looked back at Troy and gave him a small smile. "Yeah, sure man, go for it." The guy shot me a small smile and then before I knew it, I was being pulled by Troy and not heading towards the kitchen.

What? What's going on? He was dragging me upstairs, but not really dragging. I was walking up on my own, but I was still confused by the whole thing.

He grabbed a key from his pocket and opened one of the room doors. We walked inside and it was not what I was expecting a room in this house to look like. It was clean, it smelled good and it looked like a normal boy's room. Not a college room. Definitely not a frat room.

"What are we doing?"

Troy looked back at me and just shot me a smile before walking to his dresser. He grabbed a plain black shirt and tossed it to me. "Put this on. You smell."

I rolled my eyes and caught the shirt. I opened it up. It was a Beatles shirt and I was absolutely in love with it. "No, it's okay," I tell him. I wasn't going to wear his shirt. That's... weird. And to be honest, I'd probably want to keep it.

"Okay, if you want to go around all night smelling like beer, then fine, be my guest."

No, I definitely didn't. Ugh.

He smirked at me once he realized that I was actually going to put it on. "Bathroom's right there," he pointed to the right.

I looked over and yeah, there was a bathroom in here. And to my surprise, when I walked in, it was clean. Absolutely clean and not disgusting. Do I judge too hard sometimes? I never imagined a guy's frat room would be like this, let alone the bathroom.

Quickly, I took off my shirt and put on his shirt and took the smell in. It smelled like laundry detergent and I could whiff it all night. But that would be weird.

I came out of the bathroom and Troy was just sitting on his bed with a book. I did take a little long in there. I changed, I used the restroom and I freshened up a little bit.

But I didn't expect him to start reading a book. A book I actually like.

He looked up at me and smiled. "Nice shirt," he put his book down on the nightstand and got up. "You can leave that shirt here if you don't want to be carrying it around. You can get it later."

Yeah, I really don't want to. "Thanks," I tell him, handing it to him since he's reaching for it.

He throws it on top of his dresser and then turns back to me and suddenly, I feel a little weird. Not weird, but nervous.

I feel nervous.

Troy's just looking at me and sort of smiling and we're all alone in this room and should I do it? Would he want to make out with me? I didn't get a chance to make out with the other guy and I know Hannah will be pissed if I don't kiss someone tonight so should I got for it?

Uhh. Am I subconsciously going for it? Because I'm now in front of him and we're silent. And not saying anything at all. He's looking down at me with a small smile and he's reaching for my hair to push it back behind my ears.

He's so unbelievably hot, I can't take it.

It also doesn't help that I'm in his shirt. Ahhh I now want to make out with him SO bad. He's sooooo good looking and he probably kisses good.

I don't know if this was his intention the whole time, bringing me up here and being nice by lending me a shirt and then he was going to suck me in. Or if he's just genuinely a nice guy. I don't know. Maybe it's the first one. He is a frat guy, after all.

But I didn't care in this moment. We're ridiculously close, not saying anything and I so badly want to kiss him. I haven't kissed anyone in three months.

And before I know it, he's leaning in and we're kissing. He tastes like beer and mint and surprisingly, I'm loving in.

He pulls me closer and deepens the kiss as I snake my arms around his neck. He slowly brings his hands up from my waist to my back and then to my face where he's gently cupping it and I'm feeling butterflies all over my stomach. Maybe it's because I haven't done this in a while. The first kiss. It's been almost two years since I've had a first kiss with someone. Or maybe it's because he's fucking hot. Or it could be that our chemistry is undeniable. I mean, we have walked to class twice this week and I did see him another time where we ended up talking while we walked to the parking lot. This isn't that random of a hook up, but it's a hookup nonetheless. And Hannah is going to be so proud of me.

I pushed forward and it ended up pushing him back, straight into his dresser and it was like in those movies where they bang on the dresser because they're so into it and everything falls, but nope. Not here. Nothing fell. But we moved away from it and somehow found ourselves on the bed.

And I just went for it. We started making out hardcore and I was really feeling it. He tasted SO good. And he was a damn good kisser. Better than Brian.

It was good for about 5 whole minutes. Straight up making out and then he sort of turned me over and looked me in the eyes before reaching down to put his lips on mine and something just came over me.

No, I wasn't going to have sex with him. No, I can't. And I won't.

I immediately pushed him off and got up and straightened myself out. "Sorry, I, um, I gotta go."

I looked him in the eyes and he looked confused, like am I really turning down sex with him? But I am. I'm not going to have sex with someone I barely know. No way. I had to get out of there. I fixed myself up a bit, got off the bed and ran to the door and opened it as fast as I could. Because this wasn't me. I'm not the kind of girl to go raound making out with people. I got carried around. And it led me to being in a position where I could have had sex. Oh my gosh. This could have been so bad. What if he was someone who didn't let me leave when I wanted to? Thank God he did.

"Gabriella!" I heard him scream my name, but nope. I was already to the stairs.

I ran down them as fast as I could, went to find Hannah, and got the hell out of there.

This night needed to be over.

* * *

"That is why you don't go to someone's room, Gabriella!" Hannah tells me as we're sitting on the floor of her room eating some In N Out.

It's in a tone that makes it seem like I'm supposed to know that or something. And sure, yeah, it's common sense, but I'm not this person. I don't know the rules. "Obviously not. I know that now!"

"Yeah, you're just supposed to make out with them in a corner or something," Peyton jumps in as she turns around in her chair at Hannah's desk.

I rolled my eyes. She wasn't even there. "You weren't even there."

Peyton laughed and joined us on the ground as she took her burger and fries out of the bag after she checked her Facebook on Hannah's computer, "I know, but still. You don't go upstairs or to some room with a guy you barely know. You know what that's going to lead to."

"He wasn't even my target!" I basically shouted as I squirted ketchup all over my fries, "I didn't even know where we were going, and to be honest, he was an acquaintance so I thought he was going to help me out. And he did, but then, yeah..."

It was the truth. He was sort of an acquaintance. I definitely knew him the most out of everyone at that party except for Hannah, of course.

Was it his intention? I don't know, most likely. He's in a fucking frat for crying out loud. It's like a rule to hook up with girls, probably. But I never wanted it to get that far. To the point where we were maybe going to have sex. No, thank you. I didn't even have sex with my last boyfriend until we were 5 months in.

Peyton sighed, "Okay, it's not the end of the world. Nothing happened. You're fine."

"Yeah, you're right," I think about it. She's right. I don't have to go to those stupid parties anymore. Nope.

Hannah grabs some ketchup and opens it with her teeth and makes a little pile in her basket of fries, "I still think you need to have fun and just hook up. It'll take your mind off of Brian, who I know you still think about."

I do still think about him. But not in a 'I want to get back together' way, just I don't know. I was comfortable with him. I had a serious boyfriend in college, my grades were great, I had great friends. Everything was perfect. And now that I'm single... it feels weird. Not that I need a man, but it just makes it feel like a real college experience now. You know? No boyfriend and you're on the hunt for one. Well, in my case, Hannah's on the hunt for me.

But maybe I do think about Brian in that way. He was in my life for a while, after all...

"Two to three more parties," she suggests to me, "two guys. That's it. And then I'll stop bothering you. I just KNOW this works."

Hannah is a self-proclaimed relationship expert even though she's not in one, but strangely, I trust her. And I really need her to get off my back.

So I agreed. "Fine."

Peyton laughed, "I'm so happy I have a boyfriend."

I was jealous of her. I liked being in relationships. But did I need one? Nope. Definitely not right now. Junior and Senior year are the most important. I'll go along with Hannah's request and then that's it. But honestly, I'm fine. I'm over Brian... I think.

"There's a party tomorrow..."

No. "Can I just maybe take this weekend off?" I ask Hannah as I grab my milkshake, "I'm not feeling it."

She rolled her eyes, but she understood. "Yeah, yeah. What do you wanna do tomorrow?"

"Can we go bowling? I haven't been bowling in forever!"

Peyton's face lit up and she started nodding her head in excitement, "Oh my gosh, yes! Liam and I were just talking about it, actually. We've been wanting to go. Let's get the group together, yeah?"

I nod as I reach over for some fries, "The usuals. And I don't even care who else. I just really feel like bowling."

"Done!" Peyton took out her phone, probably about to text her boyfriend.

And this is why I'm so happy I stayed in San Diego.

I have my two best friends, all our other friends here that didn't move away. It's the best.


	4. Chapter 4

"My arm is so sore!" My friend Leah laughed as she extended her arm to push open the door for us after our science class.

I laughed and shook my head, "Seriously?"

She sighed, "Yeah! I hadn't bowled in forever and those balls are heavy!"

Okay, ew, that sounds so weird. And her saying it loud in public is a little bit embarrassing. "Okay, shh," I tell her before taking a sip of my iced tea in my hand, "isn't your class that way?"

She was supposed to take an immediate turn once we exited the science building, like she has been doing for the past week, but this time, she continued walking with me. Not that I mind, I love having someone to walk with, but isn't she going to be late?

Leah shrugged, "Yeah, but I'm meeting up with Hannah by the student store. She wants to walk over together."

"That's dumb because you're right by it already."

"I know," she laughed, "but I don't care. It's good exercise."

Psh like she needs it. But whatever. I just know I wouldn't want to walk farther than I need to. "That was fun on Saturday, huh? It was a nice reminder of high school and how everything used to be," I take another sip of my ice tea, "like everyone seemed to be having a really good time."

Leah clapped her hands a bit, being the drama queen that she is, "I know! It was so much fun. Like how crazy that we're all still friends? And good friends!"

We were lucky. A few of our good friends went out of state or more than two hours away for college, but a lot stayed local. A lot go here. Some go to UC Irvine which isn't far at all.

"Tell me about it. We should go again soon, I forgot how much I loved it."

And then we walked in silence as she texted her boyfriend and I just looked around. The cutest boy just passed me. Ugh I hate when that happens because chances are, you'll never see them again.

But then I saw an even hotter guy. Who was standing in front of the student center laughing with his buddy and looking ridiculously hot.

Troy.

"Oh, there's Han," Leah tells me pointing her out.

I look from Troy to Hannah and there she was standing waiting for Leah talking on the phone.

And then all of a sudden Leah is gone. And I'm standing here by myself. I catch myself looking at Troy again. Great. I'm going to have to pass him to get to class. I really don't want to. I knew there was a possibility because we always were in the same place and that's how we ended up walking to class together last week. But today, my professor let us out a bit early so I thought I was in the clear, but nope. Here he was. And I couldn't go another way. Too long.

So I sucked it up, tried not to look in his direction and walked straight ahead.

I passed him and I don't think he saw me. Thank God. I continued walking, drinking my iced tea and taking in the beautiful weather. Seriously, it was so nice.

And then halfway there, someone came up next to me. It was Troy, of course. He casually strolled next to me like he had been walking with me this entire time. I looked over at him and almost choked on my drink.

"You okay?" he laughed.

I coughed it out and nodded my head, "I'm good."

He kept walking and I kept walking and finally, after a little while of silence, he asked how I was. What? I looked over at him and he gave me a small smile as he put his hand behind his head and scratched his neck. Seriously. He even looks hot doing that. What the heck.

"Um, I'm good," I finally answer him like an idiot, "What about you?"

"I'm good, too," he tells me as he opens the door for us and I walk right in.

Well this is a bit awkward. The last two times were anything but. He was more talkative and he seemed more confident. I know he's not a shy guy. He can't be a shy guy if he's in a fucking fraternity. It's not possible. And seriously, what guy that hot is shy? I can't think of a single one.

Now, I'm standing in front of my classroom and I should just open the door and go in but Troy is still by me and it looks like he wants to tell me something.

So I turn to him and initiate the conversation. "Yeah?"

He chuckles a bit, almost like a nervous one and then pulls me over to the side where there aren't any people. We're in the corner of the hallway and I'm holding on to my iced tea and a notebook and I'm wondering what the hell he could possibly say to me.

He's staring at me and it's like he's trying to collect his thoughts. Finally, his eyes land right on mine and I get butterflies in my stomach. Ugh.

"I just want you to know that," he pauses for a second and looks away, but then is right back to staring at me and giving me butterflies, "on Friday, um, you know, sex, um, it never even crossed my mind."

Wait. What? Is he telling me that when we were in his bedroom, making out on his bed, and his hand was kind of going up my shirt that sex wasn't on his radar? That he wasn't even thinking about doing it with me? That's what he's trying to tell me?

"What?"

He chuckled a bit and looked slightly embarrassed. "No, I mean, like, I didn't take you up there in hopes of having sex and I just want you to know that."

Oh wow. Okay. Umm. I don't really know what to say. Why would he lie about this, you know? Why would he ever want to tarnish his reputation? This is weird and definitely something I wasn't expecting. At all.

"Oh," I dumbly say, "um, okay." Ugh.

He laughed a bit and I knew he could tell I was uncomfortable so he left it at that. He sort of just smiled and then took a step back. "Have a good day."

And that's it. I went to my class and I sat in my seat and thought about what just happened.

What the fuck just happened?

Then, a small smiled emerged on my face.

* * *

"So, what do you make of it?" Peyton asks me as I'm laying on the floor of my room doing some math.

I just told her about my conversation with Troy because I needed her input on it. I mean, when I thought about it in class, it made me smile. It made me think that he wasn't a typical guy. But at the same time, I'd be naive to think that, you know? He's in a frat. What guy doesn't want sex?

"What do you mean?" I ask her, looking back at her, who's at my desk painting her nails.

She shrugged as she blew on her left hand, "Like, do you believe him? Or like, why didn't he want to have sex with you?"

Ummm. "I mean, why would he lie about it?"

Peyton laughed a bit and then turned to me. "Gabs, why wouldn't he? If he wants to hook up with you again, he's probably going to make you think that he's not a total sleazeball."

Maybe she's right. Maybe I AM being naive about this. Oh boy. "Yeah, I guess so."

She looked at me and squinted her eyes and then widened them with a smile on her face. "Oh my gosh, are you into him?"

What? No. "Pey, no, I hardly know the guy. Why would you say that?"

"Because you look disappointed by my answer," she tells me, still blowing on her nails, "trust me, I want to believe him too for your sake, but you know how guys are. But if you like him, I don't know. Talk to him."

No, I don't like him. "No, it's nothing. It was just a hook up. That's what happens in college, right?"

Peyton laughed and rolled her eyes. I was so inexperienced that it was probably funny. And sad. "Not all guys are bad. Maybe you'll find someone great at those parties you promised Hannah."

She's right. Maybe. "Yeah, I'll see. I'm not looking for anything, though."

"I know," she nods her head, "but maybe it'll get you out of your little funk. Also, I hooked up with Liam at a party one summer and look at us now."

Three years together. Happily in love. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It could happen. I know that. But I wasn't counting on it. My mind wandered back to Troy even though it probably shouldn't. He's SUCH a good kisser. And he's SO unbelievably hot. Like so attractive. How is a guy even that attractive?

My thoughts were interrupted by my brother opening the door to my room. "Hey, you guys wanna go grab a bite to eat?"

I looked over at Peyton and she shrugged, leaving it up to me. Hmm I am hungry. "Where?"

"I don't know, I'm craving Mexican," Daniel tells me, "yes or no? Cassandra's waiting."

Oh with his girlfriend, too? I'm in! I LOVE his girlfriend.

"Yeah, I'm hungry," I look over at Peyton and she nods, "okay, yeah. Let me just finish this problem really quick."

My brother nods and closes the door and I hurry up and finish it. But my mind still wanders back to Troy. What is he doing right now? Am I ever going to talk to him again? Will we walk to class together on Wednesday? Ahh I'm going crazy thinking about all of this.

Oh man, I need to calm down.


	5. Chapter 5

This party I'm at isn't a fraternity party so, so far, so good.

Peyton has a cold and wasn't feeling well so she didn't join us, but Hannah and Leah are here with me and Leah's already downed like 4 shots so she'll be drunk in no time, I'm sure.

In a way I'm glad Peyton's not here because when I wanna leave, I can just call her up. I could wait for Hannah since she's not drinking tonight, but even when she's not drinking she likes to stay until 1 am... dancing and flirting.

"12 o'clock," Hannah whispers in my ear.

I shrugged her off my shoulder and looked back at her, "why can't you just say straight ahead?"

She giggled a bit and pushed me forward and when I turned back to give her a dirty look, she was gone. Ugh. Why did I ever agree to this? Seriously. I don't need a boyfriend and I'm perfectly fine being single even though it won't hurt to talk to a guy, I'm sure. It's still stressful.

And then I casually found myself in front of this guy and by some miracle, he found me attractive, too because he asked what my name was.

"Gabriella," I tell him, sweetly. Wait. I shouldn't be so sweet.

"Aiden," he tells me and I'm already turned off. I hate this name. That's so wrong, huh? Judging someone by their name. Oh well.

And now, all of his friends have magically disappeared and it was just the two of us. He asked me if he could get me something to drink, but I told him I was still working on mine. Did he not see me holding this red cup? Uhhh.

Conversation started flowing a bit and I looked around for Hannah or Leah, but they were no where in sight.

"So where are you from?"

I turned back to him and tried to give him my undivided attention, "Oh um, here..."

He nods his head, "Me too. UC San Diego?"

"Yeah, third year. What about you?" I'm not into this conversation at all, to be honest. And now that I'm looking at him, he's not that attractive to me. Well, he's like obvious attractive. Know what I mean? Blue eyes, blonde hair. But this isn't my type at all. I'm into brunettes. What was Hannah thinking?

He chuckled a bit, "don't know, don't care. My dad bought my way in."

Ohhh ewwww. I'm done with this. We haven't even been talking five minutes and I already want to flee.

I looked around the room as he started talking about something and my eyes landed on Troy.

Why is he at every single party I'm at? Silly question. He's probably just at every single party there is in San Diego. Ha. But Oh my gosh. Butterflies appeared in my stomach all of a sudden. Some guy came up to him and was trying to hand him a drink, but Troy shook his head and waved it off. It looked like he didn't want to be here which was surprising. You join a frat because you love to party, right? And then this girl came up to him and she was all giggly and giddy and trying to get in his arms, looking like she wanted to dance, but he gently pushed her away and then made his way out of that area, pushing himself through the crowd. I followed him with my eyes but as soon as he turned his head, I looked away. I didn't want him to catch me staring.

"So what do you think about that?"

Ummm. I turned back to this Aiden guy and gave him a small smile, "I have to use the bathroom."

He tells me he'll be around here and to find him afterward, but fuuckkkk no. I'm fleeing from this guy. I have no interest whatsoever. You want to brag about how your family has money? Okay, bye. Seriously. So annoying.

I went and found Leah and told her it was a disaster and before I know it, Hannah's coming up behind us, dancing along to the music.

"Hey guys!"

"I'm done," I rolled my eyes at her, "he was the worst."

Hannah frowned, "Seriously? Okay, let's look for another one."

"No," I tell her shaking my head, "I'm done here. Please. I tried and it just didn't work out and I have a killer headache." I really did. It wasn't an excuse. And I mean, how lame that I'm TRYING to hook up with someone? This isn't me and it's quite frankly, a bit desperate.

But Hannah says she knows what she's doing so I guess I'm going to have to trust her.

She sighed and gave in. "Fine, but for the record, next time, you don't have to make small talk. Just fucking kiss them!"

I laughed and shook my head before walking away. They knew I was gonna go outside and call Peyton to come get me. I told them the plan beforehand. So, off I went. I took my phone out and searched for her name in my contacts as I made my out the door and walked down the steps.

And I stopped walking so I could really concentrate. I couldn't walk and do things.

But then someone bumped into me, very slightly, though. Like they didn't think they were walking too close, you know? It was a complete accident.

The guy kept walking because I'm sure he didn't realize he even touched me. But he did a small double take once he realized it, said sorry and then kept walking. But then he stopped. And turned around.

It was Troy.

"I didn't even realize it was you."

So if it wasn't me, he would have kept walking and not said anything? I didn't know what to say to him, though.

He gave me a small smile. "Sorry about that, I should probably slow down."

Yeah, that's why he grazed me. I shouldn't have said bumped. It was a slight graze and it did seem like he was in a hurry. "Oh, um, it's okay," I tell him and I'm all of a sudden nervous. Ugh, get it together, Gabriella. He's just a boy. Well, a hot boy.

"You leaving?"

I look around and I have no idea why. Maybe because I don't want to make complete eye contact with him. "Hopefully."

He gives me a weird look. "What does that mean?"

"Oh," I lift my phone up a bit to show him and it's probably super lame, "I'm calling my friend to pick me up."

He nods and looks away for a bit as I look back at my phone about to dial. This conversation is over, right? Because I have to call Peyton now. It's only, like, a three minute drive from her house so it's not a big deal if I wait.

I'm about to hit 'send' but Troy interrupts. "Wait, um, I can give you a ride if you want. I'm leaving, too."

No way. I am not getting a ride from this guy. I hardly know him and my mom always told me to never, ever get in cars with strangers or people you've just met. Nope. Can't.

"If you want," he goes on, "I don't mind."

Okay, so he's not being pushy about it. That's one sign he might not do anything to me, right? But still. A little weird. "Campus is that way, my house is the opposite way, so don't worry about it. I'm fine. I'll just call my friend."

He shrugs, "Okay."

I hit send as he put his hands in his pocket and turned around to walk off. The call sent me right to voice mail. I tried again and I still got her voice mail. . Should I? I put my phone in my pocket, bit down on my lip, thinking really fast and hard about what I should do.

And then I called out Troy's name and he turned around.

"Yeah?"

I didn't say anything else. I just walked up to him, he gave me a smile and we walked to his car. Oh man.

"So where to exactly?"

Um, I completely forgot I was going to have to give him my address. Shit. This guy could be a serial killer for all I know.

Should I have him take me to Peyton's? No. I can't do that to her. Give away her address. Fuck. "Umm, take a right at the light and you're just going to go all the way down for a couple of miles. And then I'll tell you where to go from there."

He nods his head as he comes to a stop in the neighborhood. He turned up the music a little bit and we sat in silence listening to Beyonce. Ha.

And then when we get on the major street, he turns down the radio a bit. "So why'd you bail early?"

Oh um. What do I say? "Don't really feel good," I settle on and then grow quiet for a bit before realizing I should probably ask him the same thing and make some sort of conversation since he is giving me a ride. "What about you?"

He shrugged, "Wasn't really feeling it."

"You didn't drink, right?"

Troy looked over at me, didn't say anything for what felt like forever, and then let out a laugh. "No, Gabriella, I didn't have anything to drink."

"I'm just making sure," I tell him, defending myself, "you never know about these college guys."

He let out a small laugh and nodded, "you're right."

I gave him more directions. It was a good ten minute drive to my house which I felt bad about, but I needed a ride and he offered, so. I really did not want to wait there and have my brother come pick me up or any other friend that would have taken their sweet time.

And halfway to my house, he turns to me. "Are you hungry or anything?"

I'm starving. Literally starving. But it's 11 PM so maybe I shouldn't eat this late. That's what my mother always says. "Umm..."

"You are," he smiled, guessing, "where should we go? I'm down for whatever you want."

Okay, yeah, I want food. But the only thing I'm craving is lasagna and I am not gonna make him go to a restaurant right now. "No, you pick. I'm not craving anything so we could be here all night deciding if it's up to me."

He switched lanes as soon as I said that and took a right at the light, "I know this really good Mexican place if you're fine with that."

"Perfect."

And before I know it, we're in a small parking lot.

I've never been to this place before, but I have passed it a bunch of times and I'm pretty sure I have friends who have been here. We got out and ordered our food and agreed that we should take it to go since there wasn't much room in the restaurant.

I got carne asada nachos and Troy got himself some tacos or something.

10 minutes later, we're back in the car heading to my house and the food smells so good. I'm actually really excited to get into my bed and eat it.

But when we get to my house, I realize campus is about about 15 minutes away and he won't eat his food for a little while. His tacos would be cold by then.

I opened my door and it didn't seem like he was going to get out so I slowly got out and grabbed my bag of food and my drink and was about to close the door after telling him thanks, but I had to invite him in. Right? It was only right. He gave me a ride home.

"Wanna come in and eat?" I ask him, "I mean unless you wanna get back. I was just thinking your food will probably be cold..."

He gave me a small smile and immediately turned off the car. I didn't have to keep blabbing.

Troy got out with his food and instead of walking to the front door, I led him to the side door. We'll eat in the back. It's a nice night out and I really didn't want to wake my parents up.

"Sorry," I tell him as we put the food on the table, "I just didn't really want to wake up my parents."

"Oh, it's fine," he takes out his tacos before taking a sip of his drink really fast, "it's a nice night, anyway. Feels good."

It did feel good. And I loved my backyard. This is where I did a lot of my homework, had BBQ's with my friends, read, basically everything. There was a table, a pool, a huge lot on top of that, a grill, a bar. We spent a lot of time here.

Troy looked around as I opened my box of nachos and took the smell in. Ah I love nachos. They're my favorite food in the whole world.

"This is a pretty perfect party house," he tells me as he unwrapped one of his tacos.

Of course he thinks that. He's a fucking fraternity guy. But I did use to throw parties in high school all the time. They were super tame, though, compared to these college ones. "Yeah, we've had some."

He took a bite of his taco and wiped his mouth a bit. "Yeah? You don't really seem like a party girl."

"Oh really, what gave it away?"

He laughed, "yeah, every time I've seen you at a party, you've either bailed early, today, or it looked like you didn't want to be there at all. But maybe you are a complete party girl and you've just been out of it lately. I don't know."

I laughed a bit as I washed down a couple nachos with my coke. "Yeah, that's it."

He shrugged, "I don't know."

"No, I mean, sure I enjoy parties, maybe just not like the average college student, you know? More so in high school."

"You grew up," he tells me, "understandable."

I guess I did. Almost every single weekend in high school, I'd be at a party or out. And now, I spend countless weekends laying in bed and watching netflix or eating a whole bunch of junk food. And reading a good book. God, I love reading. Maybe it's growing up or maybe I've just gotten lazier. Ha.

We sat in silence for a bit as we stuffed our faces with our food. He was on his second taco and I was like 1/4 done with these nachos. They were SO good.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Yeah, I have two brothers. One younger, one older."

"Oh wow, and how's that for you?"

I laughed and picked at my nachos, finding the perfect one that was coated with everything- beans, cheese, carne asada, sour cream, guac. "I mean, it'd be a lot easier if I just had sisters, but they're great. You feel more protected in life."

"That's good," he tells me, "I have two younger sisters and they probably hate me, but what can ya do?"

"Eh, they'll thank you someday," I assure him, "In high school, I'd get so mad at my older brother, but when I hit college, I was like, wait, he was just looking out for me. He was right about that guy, he was a total asshole."

He laughed, "yeah, I hope so."

And for the rest of our night together, we talked about our families and it was nice. It felt... comfortable. His mom and dad are still together. They were high school sweethearts. His sisters names are Kelsey and Alison and they're 17 and 19. He's turning 22 in November so they're all 2 years apart and that's how my family is, too. Our families were basically the same. Except I had two brothers of course, Daniel and Matthew. It was a nice conversation.

It flowed, it wasn't forced and we shared some laughs.

Before I knew it, he was getting up to go and I was bummed about it. I wanted him to stay a bit longer and talk.

But he couldn't. Well, he could, but I wasn't going to ask him to. He threw away his trash in the trash can and then I walked him out and closed the side gate, since I was going to go through the front anyway. I grabbed my keys from my bag, getting ready to go in.

"Thanks for the ride," I tell him as we're just standing on my front lawn.

He puts his hand in his pocket as he holds his keys with the other one. "Oh, no problem. Thanks for letting me eat my food here."

I just smiled at him and we didn't say much else. I think he mumbled a, see ya, and then turned around and walked to his car. Once he was in, I turned, too, and headed to my front door.

And once I was inside, I closed the door behind me, leaned against it and smiled to myself.

This night wasn't so bad, after-all.


	6. Chapter 6

"How was class?"

Oh God. Troy looked SO hot today. He was in work out clothes and some Nikes.

It was my first time seeing him. My class before this was canceled, which I don't know why since it's the third week, but it was so I hung out with my friend in the quad so I didn't see him on my way over here.

I gave him a small smile as I shoved a notebook into my bag, "Oh, fine, you know... the usual." Which means it sucked.

"Where are you headed?"

It was always different everyday. Some days I'd head straight to the parking lot. Other days I'd go meet up with a friend. Of course, there has only four days answering this question since I only have this class twice a week. "Um, parking lot. What about you?" Probably the gym?

He moved his notebook from one hand to the other and opened the door for us. "Parking lot, too. Thinking about heading to the gym."

Knew it. "I would not be able to work out in the middle of the day," I tell him. It's 12:15 and all I really want to do is go grab some lunch and maybe take a nap or something. Working out for me has to happen in the morning or at night. Hell no, not around lunch time.

"Which is why this is a dilemma," he moves over a bit so a biker could pass by, "because all I really want right now is a huge plate of pasta."

Mmm pasta sounded SO good. "I'd take the pasta over the gym any day."

He looked over at me and smiled, "you just helped me make up my mind. Pasta it is."

Well, okay then.

"And you're coming with me since you gave me the idea," he tells me, "unless you're busy right now?"

Nope. I'm not busy at all. But lunch with him? Really? This is weird. We're like acquaintances, maybe even sort of friends, but we hooked up and it was extremely awkward and it's like we didn't even talk about that at all. It's like it didn't even happen. Which is so weird. "Oh, um, no I'm not, actually."

Okay, I guess I'm going to get pasta with him.

Yep.

And 15 minutes later, we're sitting in a booth in the back of one of my favorite Italian food places in San Diego. I always come here whenever I want a big plate of fettuccine Alfredo. They have the best kind. And they give you so much.

"Which kind are you getting?" he opens the menu and scans it, "I've never been here before."

I dropped my menu and gasped, "You've never been here?"

He looked at me like I was crazy. "Sorry, no, was I supposed to?"

"Uhh yeah," I tell him, "they only have the best Italian food in all of San Diego. Seriously, it's so authentic. It's like you're in Italy."

Troy laughed and once again raised his menu, "Well, I guess we're even then. That Mexican place that you had never been to literally is like a little part of Mexico with the best food, ever and I can't believe you hadn't been there until then."

I rolled my eyes and closed my menu. I knew what I wanted. "Okay, yeah, you're right. But you're going to keep coming back to this place if you get the ravioli di Magro with pesto sauce. Seriously, life changing. You won't regret it."

"Done," he smiles at me before looking around.

I pushed my menu off to the side and grab a little piece of bread from the complimentary bread basket.

"I feel so under dressed here," he looks back at me, "why didn't you tell me it was nice and a bit upscaley? I'm surprised they even let me in."

"Because I really wanted it," I told him with a small laugh, "and it's the middle of the day, who cares. It may be embarrassing during the night, but who really expect someones to come really nice to lunch? No one."

He nods, "Yeah, maybe you're right." No, I know I'm right. "Just a little embarrassing, that's all."

Troy shouldn't be embarrassed at all. He's fucking hot. He could have a whole bunch of holes in his shirt and no one would say anything because his beautiful face makes up for everything. Does that even make sense? Probably not. But my thoughts when I'm around him don't make much sense. He's just so hot.

And I still can't believe I actually made out with him and it seemed like he wanted to be making out with me, too. And now we're at lunch together.

And it was totally random and I don't know how badly he wanted it, but this isn't a good idea, right? I shouldn't have a boyfriend. Or anyone to even date right now. I need to be focusing on school and school only. Not some guy. But gah, he's so hot.

"So what's your deal, Gabriella?"

Huh? He's leaning back in the booth now giving me a small smile and I have no idea what he really wants to know. "What do you mean?"

He shrugs a bit, "I don't know. Like why stay in San Diego?"

Oh that's it? That's all he meant by it? Why did he have to sound so dramatic about it? "Okay, first of all, it's not like you're far from home, either" I let him know, "and I don't know. Call me a baby, but I didn't want to be far away from my family or my friends."

"That's pretty cool, actually," he leans forward a bit and grabs his drink, "that you have this great family and friends that you don't want to leave."

"And you don't?" Ah, Gabriella, maybe you shouldn't have asked that. Shit.

Troy chuckled a bit and shook his head, "Nah, I do, but I don't know, I guess it's different for guys. They want to be more independent."

And then the waitress came and took our order, interrupting our conversation, but I didn't mind because I really wanted to eat already so I'm glad she came. He ordered what I suggested, I ordered the fettuccine Alfredo and he also ordered mozzarella sticks for an appetizer.

She left after flashing Troy a smile of course. Slut. Just kidding. I turned back to him and agreed with him, "Yeah, I guess guys are different. But I mean, you can be independent and still live at home."

"No, yeah, of course," he clarified, "I'm just saying. That's why I wanted to leave. But I still go back all the time. In fact I'm going back this weekend."

Orange County. I love it over there. Sure, there are a lot of people like in that Real Housewives show, pretentious and rich, but it's a beautiful city. Big, clean, open. Lots to do. I wouldn't mind living there at all, actually. Maybe when I'm older or something.

And then the conversation shifted a bit when he asked what I was majoring in.

"Environmental science," I tell him.

"Really?" he asks taking a sip of his drink, "Wow. Sounds... boring."

I laughed. I wasn't necessarily that into it, but I'm good at it. "I don't really want a career in it specifically. I want to be a lawyer. An environmental lawyer so it was my best pick."

He looked impressed, "Wow, a lawyer? Nice."

"Yeah, I've always been interested and people tell me I'm pretty stubborn in my ways, so..."

"Well, that's always a good quality to have if you're going to be a lawyer and go into court and shit."

Yep. Of course. "What about you? What are you majoring in?"

"Architecture."

My dad's an architect. "Oh yeah? My dad's an architect... that's cool."

He smiled. "Yeah, I've always been interested in buildings and houses and how they're shaped and stuff. I don't know. Hopefully it works out. I have an internship starting in about a month or so at Studio E which I'm really excited about."

Studio E Architects? That's my dad's company. Oh my gosh. "Wait, you're going to be working for my dad."

"Shut up," he tells me with a small laugh, "What a small world."

It was a small world. I kind of want to ask my dad about it. I mean, they do internships all the time, but very little. That means Troy is smart. He's smart enough to get this internship which hundreds of people apply for. It's one of the best firms in San Diego and they picked Troy.

"Very small," I pretty much whisper.

Maybe I prejudged him. Maybe he's not at all what I think.

* * *

"Hey kiddo, how was school?" my dad asks me as he plants a kiss on my head from behind the couch, "anything exciting?"

I put my book down next to me and turn around a bit to face him, "Same old. I want to drop out." Not really, obviously. But I'm doing some reading right now that I do not care about and it's exhausting. All I want to do is go to sleep.

He laughs as he starts taking off his tie. "No way."

"I know," I tell him, turning around all the way now, "hey, do you know a guy named Troy Bolton?"

My dad immediately turns his head. "Troy Bolton. Why does that name sound so familiar?" I give him time to register it and sure enough, he remembers. "Oh yeah, yeah, he has an internship lined up at the firm. Smart kid."

"Really?"

My dad nodded as he kicked off his shoes and sat on the sofa couch diagonal from me, "Obviously if he got one of the spots, why? What's up?"

I didn't have a normal father and daughter relationship with my dad. No. It's as if he's my second mom. I remember coming home one day from a date and telling him absolutely everything. From the way he picked me up to how he kissed me goodnight. Like, I tell my dad everything. So if I tell him I hooked up with this guy, it wouldn't be weird at all. He'd just ask me how it went and yeah. But I don't know if I should since it didn't go anywhere, and I don't think it is, so I don't want it to be weird between them at work. So maybe I shouldn't tell him.

"No reason," but I know he doesn't buy it.

He looks over at me as he grabs the control and raises an eyebrow, "Well, then how would you know to ask me if I know him?"

Dammit. He's right. "No, I just, I might have been hanging out with him and conversation of what we wanted to do and what we were majoring came up and yeah, he told me he got an internship at your firm."

And then we heard the door open, and in came my mom with a shopping bag.

She immediately spotted us in the living room and came over to us. "Hey guys," she gave my dad a kiss on the lips and then came over to me, "what do you think of this?"

She took out a dress, it was long and really nice. Plain, but classy. It was actually something I would wear. Weird.

"I like it," I shrug, "what's it for?"

"A dinner thing for your dad," she looks over at him in annoyance. She doesn't particularly like going to these things, "but yeah, you like it? You don't think it's too plain? I really like the color, which is why I got it."

I shook my head, "No, yeah, I think it's fine."

She put it back in the bag and looked over at my dad who was flipping through the channels, "I'm not even going to bother asking you."

He looked at her and gave her a sweet smile, "Thank you, I love you."

She rolled her eyes, put the bag on the ground and took a seat next to me on the couch. "What are you guys doing?"

My dad turned his head and chuckled a bit. "Gabriella here has a new boyfriend, I guess. And it so happens that he's going to be working for me soon. He has an internship lined up."

What the heck! "I don't have a new boyfriend!" I said almost too loudly.

"You do?" my mom turned and smiled at me, "what's his name? Where'd you meet him?"

I rolled my eyes and leaned back on the couch, grabbing a pillow and hugging it, "No! I don't have a new boyfriend, he's nothing. It's nothing. It was just a simple question I asked dad and now all of a sudden I'm dating him? No, we've hung out like twice. So, not a big deal... at all."

My mom and dad looked at each other and smiled.

This was annoying. We were way too close of a family at times. Sometimes I liked it, sometimes I wish it wasn't like this. Like right now.

"About time you found yourself a boy!"

What is my mom talking about? "What? It's been three months since Brian!"

"Three months too long," my mom exasperated, "it's college! You're supposed to have fun and date around. You didn't find that person you're going to spend your life with in high school, so why not do it in college?"

Um because I'm only 21 years old. Almost 22. Like, why do I need to do that? "No, I was honestly just curious about him working there because he didn't strike me as someone that smart and I know you should never judge a book by its cover, but I did."

"Well, I haven't met him, but I've heard really good things about him, which is why he got the internship, of course."

I picked up my book and continued reading and turned my face around so my parents wouldn't see me smile.

It made me smile that I might be wrong about Troy Bolton.


	7. Chapter 7

This really is all so stupid.

Like, why do I even need to go to a certain number of parties with Hannah?

It's almost like she has a bet with someone and she wins money if she's able to drag me to parties, college parties. And here she is, winning, because she keeps dragging me to them and I keep just hating them. Especially this one because it's at the Delta house. I don't even know what the sorority is called.

"So, who do you want me to hook up with?"

Hannah laughs at my question, but then points to someone. "Super cute, super chill, do it."

I get it. I get why she wants me to hook up with guys. But I just don't feel the want to, you know? I don't really want to.

Her and I both know that there's a part of me that just can't let go of Brian. That if he came back, maybe we'd pick up where we left out. But her and I both know that, that would be the stupidest thing to do because he didn't love me the way he said he loved me or he wouldn't have left me. And I wouldn't be here at these parties, trying to hook up with guys per Hannah's request.

Hooking up with guys gives you that hope that there are other people out there that can give you that feeling again. That feeling of being wanted.

And so, I get it. I fully understand it does work.

I just don't think I'm that person. I mean, it could work. I'm just not someone that really wants to be hooking up with all these different guys because it's just not my style. And I don't knock Hannah for doing it because she's trying to find what she likes and doesn't and that's totally okay. It's just not for me.

"I'm kidding, Han, I'm not. What about just talking to some guys?" I suggest. I don't mind talking to guys.

"Yes!" She exclaims, almost spilling her beer, "go talk to him."

Talking to a guy is so much better for me. Kissing someone doesn't make me like them. Talking to them and finding things out about their life does so this is much better and Hannah knew it was the best offer she'd get from me so she took it.

I took a deep breath, put down my cup of water and walked over to this guy who was talking to two guys near the kitchen.

"Excuse me," I tell the guy.

"What?" he looks up at me and then realizes I'm asking to get by, "oh, sorry.."

I give him a smile, like a flirty smile, and then head to the kitchen and grab a beer from the counter, even though I'm not going to drink it because I'm driving. I'll just give it to Hannah later. I'm using it as a prop.

And when I turn around to walk back, I make sure to pass by him again and carefully graze him with my arm.

It's probably totally noticeable that I'm doing all of this on purpose, but whatever. I'm all for moving on from Brian. "Sorry."

"It's okay," he smiles at me and then looks down at my beer, "here, let me open that for you."

"Okay," I hand it to him.

He pulls out some keys from his pockets and uses a key to take the cap off and then hands it back to me with a smile. "So, you're a beer type of girl?"

Not really, no. Not at all, actually. It's a prop. I needed to get something from the kitchen. But obviously, I'm not going to tell him that. So I'll drink a tiny bit while I'm standing in front of him to not make it so obvious. "I like everything."

"Oh, you do?" he looks intrigued, "fireball?"

What the fuck is a fireball? Shit. Ummm. "Yeah, sure. Anything fruity. Beer. Don't really have a preference."

I'm lying. I'm totally lying. But it just escalated to here.

"Nice," he laughs, "I'm Logan."

"Gabriella," I smile at him and take a sip of my beer so he doesn't start asking questions.

Logan is... well, first of all, he's taller than I'd like. I know girls always say they like tall guys and blah blah blah, but nah. I don't want to have to tippy toe to kiss them. So minus one point. But he is really cute. He has light hair and hazel eyes and really good bone structure. But nothing really pops out to me. Like, he sort of just blends in and that's totally fine, because I'm positive I blend in a crowd, too, but yeah, I'm not wanting to jump his bones.

But he seems like a nice guy... so far.

"You go to school here?" he asks me, taking a sip of his beer.

"Yeah, UC San Diego," I nod, assuming he does, too. But I'm well aware not everyone at these parties go to our school. They could just be friends of people that do, you know? I'm sure they don't check IDs in order for you to get in. Wait what am i even saying? Ugh. Lame, Gabriella. "What about you?"

"Yep, go there as well," he gives me a small smile like it's some great thing, but it was a bit expected. "Senior?"

I nod, taking a tiny baby sip of this beer, but make sure it looks like I took a gulp. "Yeah, senior. Really excited to graduate."

He nods, "same, yeah."

As he was taking another sip of his beer, I looked around the place for Hannah. I needed her to see that I was actually talking to this guy so she could be proud of me or whatever. But she was nowhere in sight. Ugh. Typical. Typical Hannah Reed.

Who I did see, though, was Troy.

And the second my eyes landed on him, he looked up and saw me. He saw me staring at him and we held gaze with each other for what felt like forever, like in those romantic comedy movies, and when I looked away, this Logan guy was looking at me, I think trying to figure out if I was okay.

"Sorry," I smile at him, "what were you saying?"

"I was just asking what you are majoring in," he smiles, looking like he's totally forgiven me for completely ignoring him.

As soon as I was about to tell him, thought, Troy came up to us.

And I was completely confused by what was going on. Why is he here? Is he trying to talk to me? Does he want to talk to me? Or am I just imagining that he's here right now? Maybe that's it.

"Hey," he says and now I know that I'm not imagining him being here. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Me?" I ask, because even though his body is towards me, he's looking at Logan.

He laughs and nods at me and then turns to looks at Logan again, "sorry, dude, gonna steal her for a minute if that's okay with you."

Logan shrugs, like he has no other option. But also like he doesn't care too much. So instead of Troy pulling me away, Logan walks away. And then it's just me and Troy... standing here. And I have no idea what's going on, really. Why he even wants to talk to me. What on Earth he could possibly tell me.

"What do you want?" I turn to him, putting the beer down on the table behind me because I don't need to pretend to drink it anymore, thank God.

"Logan Anderson, seriously?" he laughs.

"What's wrong with Logan Anderson?" I turn around to look for him, but he's out of sight now.

Troy shook his head and laughed, looking at me like I knew absolutely nothing. "What's right with him? Seriously, dude will turn around after you, probably forget your name, and then forget a few other girls' names in the process."

So what he's saying is, if Logan and I were to hook up, afterward, he'd go with some other girl, forget my name and forget hers too?

Uh, yeah, that's gross.

But what credibility does Troy even have? And why does he care?

"Why does it matter?" I'm a bit on the defensive because he's laughing like I have no idea what I'm doing and while he's right, I don't want to give him that satisfaction. I don't want him to think he's saving me from someone, you know? "I can do whatever I want."

"For sure," he agrees, "but Logan Anderson is, like, the epitome of the guy your mom warns you about. Just helping you out."

"I don't need your help," I tell him, not like a bitch, but just like... I don't know. Maybe it did come out bitchy. But something about this whole interaction is irking me. "We were just talking, who cares."

Troy shrugs and gives me a small smile, "just don't think he's the guy for you."

Something about that gives me butterflies. Insane butterflies.

Troy Bolton is standing here, in front of me, at some party telling me that this guy is bad news. Warning me about him. Acting slightly... jealous? I don't know. I don't know what he's doing, what his motives are behind it, but I can only take it for face value and I think, I think he didn't want me talking to him.

"Oh yeah?" I tell him, "you barely know me, you don't know what I want and don't want."

"You're right," he nods, "but I can almost guarantee that if I didn't come over and save you from Logan Anderson, you'd fall for his Logan charm, and then be so upset you did because he didn't call you."

I don't even know what to really say to this. I don't know if he's making all of this up and I'm supposed to play along in a flirty way or if he's legit telling me the truth about Logan. I look away for a moment and what I see sort of confirms that maybe Troy is telling the truth.

Logan has his arm around some girl and she's laughing at something he's saying.

"Wow, you're really sweet to save me from it," I turn back to him, "I don't think it holds much weight, though, coming from you."

"Coming from me?"

"Oh, please, you and Logan are probably one in the same."

Troy looked at me like I just offended him and granted, maybe I did, but he has to know people think this about him. There's no thing going around that Troy hooks up with a lot of girls and breaks their hearts. Nah, that's Trevor Johnson. Or maybe there is and I just don't pay attention to anything that goes on socially at our school. But I'm sure he hooks up with just as many girls as Logan and any other guy in a stupid frat, so I don't think I'm saying anything that mean or offensive or anything he hasn't heard before.

And after a moment or so, he spoke up. "I always call a girl when I tell them I'm going to call."

That's his response? I get it. He said something about Logan not calling and he's trying to show me he doesn't compare to him... in that way, I guess.

It made me smile a bit. And I don't know, there's something about Troy Bolton that is so different to me, yet I don't know if I can fully believe it because yes, he is in a frat and yes, he does party a lot. He probably has this reputation I know nothing about. So it's this weird thing.

"I don't want Logan Anderson," I tell him, with the smallest of smiles. And then I decide I'm going to leave. Now's a perfect time. "I'm out of here."

"Wait," he calls after me, "can I have a ride?"

I think about it for a moment. And for some reason, I want to give him a ride more than anything.

So I nod, smile and turn around and wait for him to follow me.

And then we walk out... together.

* * *

"I love this song," Troy turned up the radio in my car as we're minutes away from his house.

He bobbed his head along to the music and it made me smile because Arcade Fire was one of my favorite bands. "Yeah? Have you seen them live? Amazing."

He looked over at me and shook his head, "No, I would've last year at Coachella but I ended up going on vacation with my family instead."

Geez, snap out of it Gabriella. That little sentence alone made me gush over him. He picked a family vacay over Coachella? How sweet. "That's where I saw them, actually," I make a right at the stop sign, driving into his neighborhood. "They were so good. So good."

Troy looked over at me and smiled.

"What?"

He shook his head, "Nothing. I've just never met a girl who likes this band."

Well, maybe that's because he's been around preppy sorority girls or something, I don't know. I mean, they're a big band, I don't know why he hasn't. Unless he hasn't met many girls. Ha, yeah, right, of course he has. Or he could just be lying. "Oh, well... yeah. They're one of my favorites."

"You can take a left up here," he instructs me, "it's easier."

So I do. I take a left at the stop sign and right away make a right when he tells me, too. I really don't know my way around this place. Where most of the frat houses are, I just knew what neighborhood.

We listen to the rest of the song and then a song by Vampire Weekend comes on and I'm obsessed with them, too. We don't talk about it, but I can see him singing along to every single word and it makes me happy. I love when people have the same taste in music as me. My last boyfriend wasn't crazy about this kind of music so whenever I wanted to go to a concert, I'd have to take a friend. Like, it would just be cute to have a guy you like there, dancing with you.

But whatever. That's in the past.

"Yeah, turn in this next street," he tells me so I do once I get to it.

And less than a minute later, I pulled up to his house. It was quiet and empty which was weird. I mean, obviously there aren't parties all the time, but I've only been here when there were so I've never seen it like this. It was nice, actually.

He looked over at me and gave me a small smile. "Thanks."

Of course. I wanted to leave the party and he was my excuse and also, I didn't mind talking to him for a bit.

After a bit of silence between us, he opened the door, looked back at me to give me one last smile, and got out. He closed the door behind him and made his way to his front door. But he stopped before he could even reach the grass of his front lawn. I was about to take off, but I noticed him turning around and coming back. I quickly looked down at the passenger seat to see what he left behind, but I didn't see anything there.

What's he doing?

He came over to my side of the car, opened my door and before I even had a chance to grasp what was going on, he grabbed my face and kissed me.

Troy Bolton is kissing me and it's amazing.

Seriously. He has his hand on my face and my hand is finding its way to his face as well and he's deepening the kiss and it feels so good. I feel his tongue graze my bottom lip and I immediately open my mouth and now we're making out. I want to unbuckle and get out of the car, but I don't have a chance to, because he's already pulling away. As fast as it begun, it ended.

And now I'm sitting here as he's just smiling at me and I'm wondering what the hell is going on.

He steps back, chuckles a bit to himself and then tells me goodnight before giving me one last peck on my lips.

He closes the door gently and then goes back to walking up to his house.

Umm. Best make out sesh ever.


	8. Chapter 8

I'm walking out of class and I look up and I see Troy leaning against the wall, just waiting there. Is he waiting for me?

"Hey," he calls out to me as soon as he sees me.

Yep, I guess he is.

He makes his way towards me and in the middle of this crowded hall, he tells me hi once again and I tell him hi and then we both smile at each other and turn around to walk out of the building. I pushed opened the door for us and once we're out on the walkway, he asks how I am.

"I'm good," I tell him, clinging on to my books as I try to reach in my purse for my phone, "you?"

"Same," he tells me, "I actually wanted to ask you something."

Oh, that's why he waited. My class actually ran a bit late so if he hadn't waited, I probably wouldn't have seen him afterward, but he did. And it made me smile the second I saw him leaning against the wall across the hall.

I look over at him to try to read his face but he's looking forward so I can't really tell. "Yeah, what's up?"

He takes a couple of seconds, but he finally spits it out. "I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go to dinner sometime."

Like on a date? Is Troy Bolton asking me out on a date? A real date?

This is all backwards. We've already kissed. Hooked up or whatever. He doesn't need to wine and dine me to have that happen, you know? Because it's already happened. But I'm not going to make it awkward and ask him because I'm sure it's safe to assume, right? He did wait for me to ask me out.

"When?"

He shrugs, "Whenever."

"I'm free tonight if you want. Or any day really works for me, too." Lame, Gabriella. Don't make it seem like you don't have a life. Well, I don't, really. I don't have much going on besides school.

"Tonight works," he looks over at me, "7?"

I nod, "perfect."

And then he takes out his phone and hands it to me. Oh right, we don't have each others numbers. Ha.

As soon as I was done putting in my number, I smiled to myself just thinking about it.

I'm going on a date, whether it really is or not, I'm going on a date and it's with the hottest guy I've laid eyes on.

How is this my life?

* * *

I snapped out of my thoughts and closed the blinds.

I've seriously replayed the conversation Troy and I had this morning in my head over and over and over for the past 20 minutes since I'm going crazy just waiting for him. He's not late, but he will be if he isn't here in five minutes.

I'm just being impatient, I think. I've literally looked out the window every other minute trying to see if his car is pulling up. But no.

Maybe I should stop, though, because what if he does come and then he sees me peering out like a creep. That would definitely not be a good start to this so called date. Well, I'm calling it a date.

I go back to my long mirror and take a look at my outfit for the fifth time tonight. I don't know if it's too casual or not. Ugh.

Black pants, a creamish knit sweater and some flats. I mean, it is casual, but what if he ends up taking me to a nice restaurant? Like a really nice one? I'd be so under dressed. But I doubt it. I mean, he would have told me if he was, right?

Fuck it. I'm wearing this.

And I'm done over thinking this whole date.

I turn around before I make myself crazy and look out my window once more but I quickly closed the blinds once I see a car pulling up. Ah he's here.

Shit. I grabbed my purse, turned off my lights and ran downstairs. I really did not want my parents or my brother to come out and say anything to him. But before I could open the door and run out, I heard a knock.

And right away my mom came out of the kitchen. "Mom, no, please."

"Let me meet this guy," she whispers to me, "I have to see who my only daughter is going out with."

No, she is not playing that card on me. "Later. It's weird and it probably will be uncomfortable. Please," I beg her as silently as I possibly could.

It worked, though. She gave me a small eye roll and made her way back to the kitchen. I took a deep breath, composed myself and opened the door.

And there he was. Standing there wearing black pants, some converse looking shoes, but they weren't, and a blue long sleeve that wasn't dressy but it wasn't too casual either. He looked hot. Beyond hot. The blue really brought out his eyes. Actually, his eyes are always that bright and beautiful to me.

"Hey," he smiles at me.

I really thought I was just going to walk out and get into his car so this is a nice surprise. "Hi," I close the door behind me.

We walk down my porch steps and to his car and he opens the door for me like a gentleman.

His car is so nice. It's an Audi and it's clean and well kept which is surprising because he's a college guy. Or maybe he just cleaned it for today, who knows. Actually, no, it was like this last time.

"So where are we going?" I ask him as I put my purse on the floor.

He drove off and turned the radio down a bit, "You like sushi, right? Because I know this really good sushi place."

Ah that's what I was craving. "I love it," I tell him, "I wish I could eat it everyday."

So far, so good. He came to my front door to pick me up, he opened the door to his car for me, he REMEMBERED I liked sushi from our conversation that one night over Mexican food and he smells reallllly good. And I can't get over how good he looks in date clothes. Ha. I mean, like, a little more dressed up clothes.

I'm a little too excited for everything right now.

* * *

"I almost tried out for a school play because this girl I thought was so pretty only went out with guys she had major things in common with and she loved theater and everything about it so I got the script, memorized it for weeks and was about to audition, but I chickened out."

I couldn't help but laugh a bit. No way he did that. I can't see him doing that. He looks way too macho.

"You didn't," I pick up a California roll and dipped it in soy sauce, "so nothing ever happened since you didn't audition?"

"Well, I lied, I didn't chicken out. I found out she had actually had a boyfriend so I didn't see the point in auditioning anymore."

How... cute. Seriously. I find it so cute.

He asked me what's one thing no one knows about me and it's taking me a while to come up with an answer so I told him to go first and this is what he told me. Actually, it's kind of an embarrassing story if you really think about it so I feel like I really have to come up with something good.

I liked this question. Sure, you don't want to tell someone you barely know anything personal, but at the same time, it might be a good foundation.

"Did she ever find out?"

He shook his head, "No way. That would have been so embarrassing. I seriously kept it a secret from everyone. It was so hard to since I would ditch people to actually rehearse for the stupid play. And it was all for nothing."

It's actually pretty endearing. But maybe creep at the same time? Ah no. He doesn't strike me as someone who's creepy.

"So what about you, what's something no one knows?"

Hmm. I dipped my Alaskan roll in soy sauce and stuffed it in my mouth. What could I tell him? I grabbed my drink to wash down my sushi as I finally decided on something. "I'm terrified of cats."

"What?" he looked up at me, "you're terrified of... cats? The fury creatures?"

It's a legit phobia and so many people have it so I don't feel too weird about it, but it is embarrassing. "Yes. And no one knows. Well, they know I don't like cats, but the good thing is I'm actually allergic to them so it's my reason for not being close to them, but if it's within 5 feet, I get serious anxiety."

He didn't laugh, he didn't make a weird face, or anything like that. Instead, he made me feel kind of normal about it. "Cats are bitches. If I wasn't such a strong athletic man, I'd probably wouldn't be their number one fan, either, so..."

I laughed. He intended for me to laugh at what he said. It's almost as if he wanted to make me feel better. "You just never know when they're going to attack, I swear."

"My sister actually got scratched bit one pretty badly when she was 10, so I really don't blame you."

Good. "I mean, it's just kind of embarrassing which is why I don't tell anyone. I once mentioned it to my mom and said that I don't really want to be around one because they're not nice and she just gave me the weirdest look, like I was being crazy."

He laughed, "everyone has a weird phobia. I'm terrified of heights, but that's common, I guess. I'm sure you're not alone, though."

"I'm terrified of heights, too," I tell him, "but I do love a good hike with a view."

"Yeah, you like hiking?"

"I do. It's my favorite form of exercising," I nod, grabbing an Alaskan roll now, "I mean, I enjoy a good run around my neighborhood or doing some yoga but hiking's my favorite. The fresh air, and, like, you get your cardio in but you also work out your muscles, you know?"

He nods, grabbing another roll as well, "yeah, definitely. I'm not just saying this, but my family's huge on hiking. We actually love to go camping because we love going on these long hikes."

Hm. I don't think he's lying, I don't think he would lie about that, so I don't think he really had to preface it with anything.

"Where do you guys usually go camping? I've only been a couple times. About an hour north of LA."

"Silverwood Lake?" he asks and I kind of just shrug because I forgot what exactly it was called, "Oh, well, we've been there a couple of times. We've gone even farther up north. Like maybe a 5 hour drive. We've done Arizona. We've even camped out here. Honestly, all over the place. We just love it."

Hm. Well, that's fun. I enjoyed myself the few times I went, but to be honest, I'm more of a stay in a hotel kind of gal, but I don't want to seem stuck up or whatever so I just smile. "And you guys just hike, hang out by the lake?"

Troy nods, stuffing his roll in his mouth, "yeah, friends tag along or family members and it's a good time."

"Yeah, the few times I went it was fun."

"No plans to go back?" he asks, grabbing some edamame and squeezing out the soybeans.

"No," I shake my head, "I mean, my friends family goes every summer and she always extends an invite, but my family likes to travel, too."

He nods head as he's reaching for more edamame and then the waitress comes and asks if everything's okay. We tell her yes and when she leaves, Troy excuses himself because he needs to use the restroom.

And while he's there, I pull out my phone from my purse and check the text messages I know I've been getting.

**If you need me to save you, just say the word. I'm a great actress. **

Ha, I laughed at Peyton's text and quickly replied that everything was fine and she does not need to save me. And once I was done with that, I checked Hannah's text that was basically saying the same thing because I have such great friends who like to look out for me, of course.

I had another text, but it was just my cousin asking about some party and she sent a followup saying never mind, she figured it out.

So, I put my phone away and waited patiently for him to come back.

Because I was having the best time with him.

* * *

"So I want to walk you out, but I also don't want to run into your dad."

Wait what? "Why not?"

Troy took off his seat belt and turned off his car before turning his body towards me a bit, "I don't know, the first time I meet him, I want it to be at work, not at his house after taking his daughter out on a date."

Oh. Yeah. I could look at this two ways. One, he cares more about this internship that me. Or two, he wants to keep it professional so it doesn't seem like he's trying to get ahead by romancing the bosses daughter. Hmm. Either way, I think I kind of like it.

I mean, he probably does care more about the internship than me to be honest. He barely knows me so I'm totally okay with it. "Yeah, no, I get it. It's fine."

He got out of the car, though, and came around to my side to open the door for me. I grabbed my purse and got out and he closed the door behind me. We walked up to my front lawn, right where the walkway started, and we both just stood there for a minute or so. He's looking over my shoulder every second and it's kind of cute, but also, he shouldn't worry so much about my dad. He's not going to barge out here and introduce himself. He's pretty cool.

"Thanks for coming out with me," he shoves both his hands in his pockets and gives me one of those nervous smiles.

Gah, he's SO hot. "Thanks for asking me."

Lame, Gabriella. Soo lame. But whatever. I kind of didn't want this night to end. I wish it was Friday or something, a normal date night, because then I'd ask if he wanted to come in or something but I can't tonight. I have to get to sleep.

"My dad's not going to come out," I let him know with a small laugh so he knows I'm not making him.

He let out a small chuckle and took my head and led me to the door.

The porch light automatically turned on and I was able to see his beautiful face even clearer. I searched for my keys in my purse as he just stood there. And once I finally found them, I put them in the keyhole and turned the key. I just unlocked it, though, I didn't open it yet.

"Be honest," he tells me as I turn around to face him again, "did you have a good time tonight?"

What? Ha. I studied his face to see if he was serious. I mean, I've been asked this question but it was never in person and it was never just straight up. It was always in text after the guy had dropped me off and it was always worded differently. Troy was just straight up about it, though.

Um. I had the best time. But do I downplay it so I don't look like a dork? "It was okay."

He right away laughed, but then got serious for a second. "Wait. What?"

"No, yeah, of course I had a good time," I reassured him.

"Sorry," he chuckles as he scratches the back of his head, "but you just never know. I mean, I'm not going to ask you out again only to get rejected so I'd rather just straight up ask if you had a good time so I can know."

"Ask me out again."

He looked a little taken aback, but I wasn't a shy person. If I was the guy in this situation, I would have asked the exact same thing as him. I was very direct and blunt when I needed to be. "Do you want to go with me to my sister's dance recital on Friday?"

Waaait. What? Uhhhhh this isn't what I had in mind for a second date.

Is he creepy? Does he move too fast? Is he going to ask me to be his girlfriend tomorrow or something? Because I seriously didn't get that vibe from him, but him asking me if I want to go to his sister's recital for a second date means I'm going to have to meet HER and possibly his family? That's crazy, right? Boys don't meet my family until I know if I want to really pursue something which them. But I don't want to say no because I do want to go out with him again. Should I tell him I'm busy?

Oh AND he lives in Laguna Beach. A mini road trip with him, considering there will be traffic? Umm. Yeah. I don't know. "This Friday?"

"Well, yeah," he sort of laughed.

Yeah, it was a dumb question. "Oh I might be going with my friend to see her boyfriend's band play." Lie. But I couldn't answer this question on the spot.

He smiled at me, though, "it's okay."

"But if not, then yeah," I tell him so it doesn't seem like I don't exactly want to go because I really don't know yet if I want to go or not. Dance recitals? I'm into them. I love them. But driving an hour to Laguna beach with a guy I barely know? And meeting him family? Um yeah... weird. And dangerous, possibly.

"Just let me know by Thursday so I can reserve a ticket for you," he moves in closer, "It'd be nice if you could come."

Ah, I'm getting chills. He's coming closer to me and there's literally only a couple inches between the both of us. "Yeah..." is all I could manage to get out.

He chuckled and closed the gap between us.

Finally. What I've been waiting for all night. A kiss from him.

He was the best kisser, ever. Seriously, in all the people I've kissed- okay, not THAT many, but a good amount, he was by far the best. And I didn't want him to stop kissing me. I snaked my arms around him and deepened the kiss and before we could even get to making out a bit, he pulled away.

Yes, I was bummed, but I knew why he did it.

My father's on the other side of the door. So is my mom. And it's not like we had all night. He probably needs to get home as well and go to sleep.

"Goodnight."

I smiled at his as he walked away backwards, going down the porch steps, "Night."

And once he was almost to his car, I turned around and walking inside my house. Ahhh, what a good night.


	9. Chapter 9

He invited you to his sister's play?" Leah raised her eyebrow as she tried her best to grab some orange chicken with her chopsticks.

I couldn't help but laugh. She was horrible with them. "Yeah, is that weird?"

She shrugged and looked over at Peyton, "What do you think?"

Peyton was too busy chewing to answer, but I'm pretty sure she was on the same wavelength as me. We're so similar, it's ridiculous. "I mean, I think it's a sweet gesture," she answers after swallowing her food, "but you guys have been on ONE date and he takes you to a family event? That's a little... much."

"I know and I don't know what to do!" I sigh. "If I say I'm busy, who knows if he'll ask me out again."

"Well, why wouldn't you? Just phrase it, like, I'm busy Friday, but I'm free Saturday if you want to go watch a movie or something."

Hmm, Maybe Peyton's right. Maybe I could phrase it like that.

But for some strange reason, I wanted to go. I like dance. And I like recitals. And I want to hang out with Troy. He could be bad news, but our date... I had such a good time and I'm still on that high and I don't want it to go away. I want to keep it going so if that means going to his sister's recital, then be it.

Maybe it's not a big deal in his eyes.

"Like how would he even introduce me?" I question, "hey, mom and dad, this is just some girl I've taken out on one date."

"Probably," Leah laughed, "but don't think about it too much. If you want to hang out with him, hang out with him. It doesn't matter what you guys are doing and obviously he wanted to hang out with you so bad if he's asking you to go to his sister's recital!"

"You think?"

Leah nodded, "yeah. He can't even wait til Saturday."

Okay, no. "Maybe because he has parties going on, on Saturday, Lee."

"No, I'm right about this, Gabs. Craig. 12th grade. He asked me out, we went out, and then he took me to his brother's soccer game during the day the next day and I mean, it was a bit weird meeting his parents, but it wasn't this big thing. He basically told me, though, that he just wanted to spend time with me, however it was, so he invited me. You now, so I wouldn't think he was moving too fast or whatever. And it was nice."

"And how long did you guys date for?"

"That's not the point!" she basically screams in this restaurant. "You know, I was busy with volleyball and stuff. I didn't have time. But he was sweet. And I'm not saying it's the same or whatever, but it's probably not this big of a deal. You're just a little too old school sometimes."

Yeah, maybe she's right. Maybe it's not a big deal at all. And his parents won't even give me a second thought.

Besides, I do want to hang out with him. However it is.

"Whatever, I'm just going to go because what if I don't go and he thinks it's an excuse? I'm pretty sure he didn't buy that I was going to go watch my friends band play. Like, he would easily look up local bands and see if they're playing anywhere near here."

"Okay, you're over thinking this," Peyton chimes in and laughs, "my God, do you like this guy that much already? It's been one date, G!"

NO, I yell in my head. But I'm not going to do that in this restaurant. "No, it's just, I don't know. You guys weren't wrong, and Hannah. It's... it's nice having that feeling again. I think I could like him."

Peyton nods and then looks over at Leah who's smiling at me. "Don't get your hopes up."

"Don't tell her that," Leah nudges her, "do whatever you want."

"I'm just trying to be a good friend here," Peyton continues, "you have to be realistic. Sure, he's hot and you guys had a great first date and he wants to keep hanging out with you. But he's a frat guy. He's a COLLEGE guy. You'd be so naive to think he's going to stay in his room when these parties are taking place in his home and just think about you and nothing else. Or that he's going to stop going to these parties. Or that he's going to stop talking to girls altogether."

She's right. She's absolutely right. And I know I've thought about it, but the past 12 hours, it's been pushed to the back of my mind and I haven't even given it a second though, when in reality, I should.

Ugh. This sucks. "No, yeah, you're right. And I know I have to keep this guard up and be careful about things."

"But that's no way to be in a relationship," Leah disagreed, "you can't have this wall up. Sure, it didn't work out with Brian, and sure now you're into this frat guy who only thinks about partying and girls and drinking or whatever, but if you get burned, you get burned. You move on."

"Why would she put herself in that position to get burned, though?" Peyton argued back.

"She won't know unless she puts herself there," Leah tells her, "the odds aren't in her favor, sure. We've seen the movies. We've seen the TV shows. We've seen it in life. Frat guys suck sometimes. But you honestly don't know until you try. And that's all I want or her. To try something with this guy because she obviously feels something. And that's great that she does."

Peyton sighed, looked at me and then shook her head, "I'm all for your happiness. I just think you should be careful and not buy his bullshit."

I was about to say something, but then my phone on my lap started buzzing.

Troy. Troy was calling me.

And before they could ask who it was, I excused myself from the restaurant and went outside as fast as I could.

"Sorry, are you busy?" he asks through the phone.

"No, I'm just at lunch, what's up?" I sit down on the bench outside, eager to hear what he has to say because honestly this is the first time we've spoken on the phone and it's a little nerve wracking. Like, what could he possibly have to say that he couldn't just say through text, you know?

"I'm just seeing where your head's at for Friday," he says, "I know I told you to tell me by Thursday, but if you don't wanna go, you don't have to."

Wow. Okay. This is just what I was talking about with Leah and Peyton.

Did he hear us!? No, calm down, Gabriella, there's no way. "Oh, do you need an answer by today? I'm sorry, I just, I don't really know what my friend wants to do yet or if she even wants to..."

"Oh, no, it's fine, it's fine. Don't worry about it," he cuts me off, "we can hang out on Saturday, maybe."

The fact that he said that changed everything for me, honestly. He wants to hang out. He invited me because he wants to hang out. And here I am making excuses because it might be weird to meet his family. But I have to get with it. It's probably not that big of a deal and it'll probably be super casual.

And now all I want is to hang out with him. I mean, he's taking time out of his day to ask if I'm up for going still.

Clearly, he wants to hang out with me, right?

Or maybe he's just super creepy and he's going to plan on killing me.

"I'm in," I tell him, deciding that I don't think he's creepy or dangerous or anything and that maybe we'll have the time of our lives together. "I'll go."

"Yeah?" he asks, "you sure?"

I'm sure. I think. No, yeah, I'm sure. I want to hang out with him. I'm so insanely attracted to him that I want to see if there's more. If there will be more than what we had on our first date together. It's worth a shot, right? Why not take it...

I nod, but then realize he can't see that. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Okay, I'll pick you up around 4," he tells me, "since I'm sure they'll be a bit of traffic, considering it's Friday."

"Yeah, that's fine," I smile through the phone, now really excited to spend some time with him. He's just so fucking hot. "I'll be ready."

We didn't really say much else, so I hung up the phone, got all these excited/giddy feelings out before I went back into the restaurant, and then got up and rejoined my friends at our table.

I have a crush on someone. An insane crush.

And it's all so exciting.

* * *

"Oh sorry, are you cold?" Troy reaches to turn off the AC in his car.

"A little," I tell him, "but if you're hot, I can easily just throw my sweater on, don't worry about it."

He shook his head and turned it off completely, "No, sorry, it's just habit. I always turn it on and just sort of forget about it. I'm fine."

"Okay, thanks."

We were currently on our way to Laguna Beach. We're probably like ten minutes away or so and it's been awfully comfortable. Like, sort of to the point where putting my feet up on his dashboard wouldn't be that weird. But I'm not obviously because that's rude. But yeah, we've been talking this whole time. He's been telling me a bit more about his family and it just made everything so much easier. It made me not rethink my decision to come here in the first place.

What's the big deal, anyway? It's a new generation. Meeting parents doesn't mean you guys are serious, right?

Right.

So here I am, going to his sisters recital.

And I mean, I love recitals. My cousin danced for 10 years and I loved, loved, loved going. And when she quit when she because a senior in high school, I was probably more bummed out about it than she was. So this is right up in my alley. And I was so excited to watch.

"Are you hungry?"

"I'm okay, I ate before we left," I tell him as I grab my phone from my lap.

**Don't be afraid to use the moves we learned in that self defense class senior year. Love you. Have fun, but not too much fun. **

Oh my gosh. Ha. I couldn't help but laugh at Peyton's text. She told me to do whatever I wanted to do, and yeah, in the back of my mind, I get that this could be the worst idea of my life. He could very well be up to no good with me, but I just... I didn't get that feeling at all. And I'm usually right about every single instict I have, so here I am... on my way to Laguna beach with him and I feel fine.

But Peyton was sweet to text me that.

"Everything okay?"

"What?" I locked my phone and put it back on my lap, "yeah, yeah, everything's fine. It was just my mom."

I don't know why I lied. I really don't. but he makes me sort of... nervous. It was the first thing that came to mind and I just spit it out.

He gave me a small smile and turned the radio up a bit and started singing along to Vampire Weekend. I picked up my phone and texted Peyton back and sang along as well. And to the next song. And the one after that.

And before I knew it, we were pulling into the parking lot to the place the recital was held at.

We found our way to the entrance, the people took our tickets and then he grabbed my hand and led us to our seats, squeezing our way into the middle of the row. And once we were situated, I looked around and realized that the person Troy was seated next to was a stranger because he didn't say hi to her.

"Where are you parents?" I lean in and ask.

"My parents?" he asked, a little confused, but then I think he got it. "Oh, um, they're out of town."

"Oh," is all I really say before the lights turn off and the curtains start to open.

He gave me a small chuckle and then opened his program and looked through it and I did the same. I looked for his sister's name. Kelsey Bolton.

She was performing twice so that was pretty cool. First, after 4 groups or so and then towards the end, which was okay because it wasn't that long of a recital anyway. An hour and a half maybe. Because this only focused on ballet and jazz. Unlike some of the other recitals that take place.

We sat back and watched all the performers in amazement. Seriously, they were so good. And then when his sister came out, he told me which one she was and I didn't take my eyes off of her the whole time because she was SO good. Literally so good. Better than my cousin ever was. And it was so entertaining to watch her. And in this moment, I wanted to come to all of her recitals. With or without Troy. Which is sort of weird, right?

"She's so good," I whisper to Troy as she was done with her performance.

He leaned in and laughed a bit, "I know, right?"

45 minutes went by and she was back at it, just as good as she was during ballet, and then before I knew it, the recital was over and I was pretty bummed.

I wanted it to last way longer. "Wait, don't forget these."

Troy turned around and smiled at me before grabbing the sunflowers out of my hands that I picked up from the floor, "thank you," he told me before giving me a quick kiss on the lips.

This was new to me. Dating. I haven't done it in so long. And I mean, what is this? Obviously I'm not a random hook up, we've been out on a date, two dates if you count this AND we've kissed more than once. Twice. I mean, he's stealing kisses now, kissing me so casually. And I'm so confused by it.

But I'm not complaining one bit.

"Kels!" Troy called out to his sister once we were in the lobby area.

She turned around and my God, she was gorgeous. Beautiful. Of course she had a lot of make up on, but you could just tell she was one of those people that would look absolutely gorgeous without it as well. She wasn't short at all, but wasn't exactly tall. She was like the right size and she was petite and oh my gosh, do I have a girl crush on Troy's sister? Ha.

She smiled and ran over to him and jumped into his arms. "Ahhhh Troy!"

He spun her around a bit and then put her down and gave her a regular hug before congratulating her. "You did amazing."

"Thanks," she sighed as she took the flowers from his hands, "I'm so happy it's over."

She turned around for a minute and hugged a friend I'm guessing and engaged in a bit of conversation before turning back to us. Well, Troy. I was just kinda standing there, not really knowing what to do or what to say.

But then she looked over at me and tilted her head a bit, like confused at who I was and what I was doing standing there or something.

"Oh Kels," Troy extends his hand and grabs me a bit by the waist and pulls me in just a little bit, "this is Gabriella."

"Gabriella," she says before looking at Troy. She gives him sort of a weird look and I'm confused by what's going on, to be honest. It's like she's shocked I'm here or something. Didn't he tell her I was coming? "Hi, I'm Kelsey."

I gave her a small smile, "you were so great out there."

"Thank you," she returned the smile as she held on to her flowers, "um, thanks for coming."

"Yeah, of course," I nod my head at her.

She turns back to Troy and I know that look anywhere. It's the look between siblings, like, I'll talk to you later about this. And I honestly don't get it. The look on her face when she saw me, was kind of like, she was shocked that he brought some girl with him. And I don't know if it's because she's assuming he didn't tell her he had a "girlfriend" or she's shocked that he brought A GIRL. You know? Like, Troy Bolton doesn't bring girls home. He only sleeps with them.

I don't know, that's the vibe I'm sort of getting right now and it's making me a little bit uncomfortable.

"Listen," she says glancing back for a second before facing him again, "thank you so much for coming. It means the world since mom and dad and Al couldn't, I'm glad you made the trip, but there's a party at Heather's and..."

"Go," Troy laughs before giving her a hug goodbye, "I'm coming back in a few weeks so I'll see you then."

She smiled and squealed a little bit, "we're going to party our faces off. I can't wait."

"Yeah, yeah," Troy chuckles.

Kelsey then turned to me and gave me a small smile, "it was really nice meeting you, Gabriella. Thanks for the compliment and um," she looked at Troy and then back at me, "yeah, you two enjoy your night."

And then with that, she was off. And Troy and I turned around and headed back to the car.

* * *

"How long has your sister been dancing?"

Troy grabbed a roll from the center of the table and teared it in half, "since she was, like, four years old."

Oh wow. 13 years. "You can tell. She's so good. I was like mesmerized."

"I know," he laughed, throwing some bread in his mouth and talking with his mouth full, which normally is really disgusting, but he has a way of making it look incredibly hot, "she's so good. She works hard, though. But at the same time, it sort of just comes natural to her."

If there's one thing to say about Troy Bolton, it's that he seems to genuinely love his family. The way he talks about them is so incredibly sweet.

And it definitely makes him more attractive. "Where was the rest of your family?"

"My mom and dad had a wedding to go to up north and my sister is away at school. She goes to UCLA so it's a little farther of a drive and she just couldn't come tonight," he told me as he stuffed his face with more bread.

"Oh," I reached for my drink and brought it in front of me, "well, that's nice that you came then."

"It was the least I could do," he shrugged, "oh and thank you for coming with me. There was no one I would have rather whispered with than you."

Ha. I laughed. "Oh, my pleasure."

The waitress then came and took our order. He ordered lasagna and I got the chicken picatta with a side of fries because I was STARVING. And who doesn't love fries? She refilled my water cup and left to put in our order, which I hope takes no longer than 20 minutes. My stomach is seriously growing.

"Just to put you at ease," he starts off and I honestly don't know what he's going to say, "I invited you because I knew my parents weren't going to be there."

Wait. Uhh. "What?"

He gave me a small smile, "No, it's just," he shook his head, "never mind, am I going to sound dumb?"

"Well, I don't know, I don't know what you were about to say."

"It's just," he laughed, "like obviously it's waaaay too soon to be meeting the parents. This, I mean, we just started hanging out, I'm not some creep who's going to introduce you to my parents even though there is something here. But I don't know, I just feel like that might have thrown you off a bit, made you feel weird, so I wanted to put your mind at ease that I knew they weren't going to be there and that we still don't even know what this is."

Oh wow. Can he fucking read my mind? Like, seriously. "Oh no" I shake my head, but then realize I can't really lie myself out of this, "Well, I mean, I would have found it a bit... too soon, but it's 2014."

Again, he laughed, "Still. I'm somewhat old school."

Well, okaay then. Cool. I'm happy about that. "Yeah, okay. No, you're right. I did think they were going to be there tonight and I might have been a little bit freaked out by it, but it's fine." It's like, he just gets me. Which is so crazy. I'm still getting to know this guy, you know?

He basically repeats what he said before and we put it to rest. No meeting the parents. Got it.

"So your sister goes to UCLA?" I change the subject before it gets awkward.

"Yeah," he perked his head up a little, "yeah, she's in her first year and I think she's majoring in bio or something to that extent, unless she's changed it because that girl changes her mind so much."

Bio. That's hard. "I'd probably change it too after taking a few of those classes. Bio is hard. And not very fun."

He laughed, "yeah, well, she wants to be a doctor, so how fun can that really be?"

"Oh, she must be really smart then."

"Extremely," he grabs his coke and takes a drink, "yeah, she's always been the brainiac of the family. She'll definitely be a doctor. Or a lawyer. Or something that makes big bucks because she's destined for great things."

Aww that's nice. Hearing him praise his sister. Honestly, he surprises me every time I hang out with him. It's so not cool to judge, but I judged him. And yeah I judged him pretty hard. Frat boy who does nothing but party and hook up with girls. But he's smart. He's interning with my dad. He's nice. He's funny. He's been nothing but sweet to me and I don't know, maybe I have him all wrong. Maybe he's more than just the typical frat guy.

And I kind of, really want to keep hanging out with him.


	10. Chapter 10

"So where's your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend," I plopped down on Hannah's couch with my cup of tea, "and he's out with some friends."

Leah and Hannah looked at each other and laughed before Leah spoke up. "You guys have been hanging out allllll week, what's going on?"

I smiled. I couldn't help but smile whenever I thought about him. He's honestly the last person I thought I would like. Part of a frat, parties every weekend, incredibly confident which can come off as cocky. But I like him. I do.

And it's so crazy that he likes me too. "Nothing, we're just having fun... getting to know each other."

"Yeah?" Hannah smiles, putting her feet up and getting comfortable, "is it going somewhere? How much do you like him?"

Geez. Question after question. "I don't know. I mean, I like him, but it's way too early for us to be boyfriend and girlfriend. It's not high school. We're grown up. This would be a grown up relationship and you can't just rush into it, you know?" Yeah, I can't. Plus, we're still getting to know each other. It takes time.

Hannah nods, "yeah, true. Be careful, though."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard this from Peyton. Not long ago, actually.

But for some reason, all I want to do is let down every single wall I have and just let everything happen. If it burns and crashes, it burns and crashes. There's just something about Troy that makes me want to go all in. And it's absolutely terrifying and surprising and wonderful at the same time. It's something that I've never imagined happening... me, Gabriella Montez, dating some frat guy. But it's just working for me right now. He doesn't even feel like a frat guy. I like him and I like the time we're spending together and honestly, he makes me happy. He makes me feel good. And that's all I really want.

And I honestly don't think he's seeing anyone else, fucking anyone else or doing anything with anyone.

"I like him," I tell her, I think a bit offended that she's telling me to be careful and I don't even know why, "I want to keep hanging out with him. He makes me feel good. He makes me laugh. And I have fun with him."

"Well, I guess that's all that matters then," Hannah smiles at me, "I just feel like he's the complete opposite of Brian."

True. Brian didn't care to party. He was mostly a hang around the house kind of guy. But then again, that's how all my friends were. We'd get together at someone's house and just sit around and hang out, drink some beers or whatever else and just talk about life with each other.

There was no loud music, girls half naked running around, people doing tequila shots or drugs.

But even though it's nothing I'm used to, even though Troy's life is the complete opposite of what Brian's was, there's something that's sucking me in.

He's incredibly attractive, yes, for sure, but there's so much more to Troy Bolton, I can feel it. I'm barely getting to it, but I think I could. I think there's a lot that I don't know, but that I would like. Something, my gut, just tells me that he's so much more than a frat guy.

The other day we sat in his car for an hour and a half and laughed about the dumbest things. We sat there, talking about things that just came to mind. And not once did he lean over, put his hand under my shirt, and try to do anything with me.

"Hannah, I can't even describe it," I shake my head, "people probably think I'm crazy getting involved with this fraternity president, but it's just..."

"I can see it all over you, you're smitten and you like this guy."

"Yeah, I do," I smile at her, "I'm not naive to the fact that this could be over in a week when he meets some girl at some party. I'm not going all in yet. But you know, I just don't think there's anyone else and I think we both like where this is headed."

Hannah smiles and looks like she's happy for me. But I could tell she's still a little wary, which is fine. I want my best friend to only want the best for me.

But I get it. I get everyone's concerns. And I'm fully aware of them.

"So, you don't think he's hooking up with other girls?" she asks, "you don't think he's hitting on, flirting with girls at parties?"

"I don't think so," I tell her, confidently even though there was a "think" in there. For some reason, I just don't think so. "I mean, I highly doubt he's sitting in bed at night thinking about me, planning our future or anything like that. But I don't know, we've hung out all week, like you said. When would he even have the time for that, you know?"

"Right now," she laughs, "I mean, I don't want him to be, of course. But it's possible."

True. They were going to some bar and of course I know there will be girls there. And we're definitely not at the point where I trust him not to or whatever, because honestly, he could if he really wanted to. We haven't had some talk about us being exclusive. We haven't even been seeing each other for long.

So, Troy is fair game and if he wants to get with other girls, he could.

The thing is, I just don't think he would.

Call me crazy, but I think we have something great going on here and it's way too soon to be calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend, but I feel like we could get there and I don't think he'd get involved with me if he didn't see that happening because I scream relationship girl. He knows for sure I'm not some casual sex kind of girl. So I just don't think he'd put me through that... you know, of just having fun with someone.

"Whatever," I end this conversation, I don't have it in me to convince people anymore that maybe I won't get burned by him.

And just as Hannah was going to say something, my phone rang.

It was Troy.

Whoa. He definitely knows we're talking about him.

I get up from the couch, and quickly walk outside to her front porch. I needed privacy.

"Hey," he tells me over the phone.

"What's up?" I want him to get to the point of why he called me. Does he need a ride? Is he drunk dialing me?

"What are you doing?" he ignores the question and throws it back to me.

Um, what was I doing? Absolutely nothing. I mean, I was with Hannah and Leah, but we've pretty much called it a night. We did a bit of shopping then grabbed some dinner and now we're just here... doing nothing. Probably going to watch a movie or something really chill. "Nothing."

I heard him move the phone from one ear to the other, "mind if I pick you up right now?"

"Pick me up?" I'm confused. "Aren't you out?"

"I was," he tells me, "but I got over it. And I wanna see you."

He wants to... see me. Gah.

I've heard these things before from exes. They've all said these sweet things to me. But for some reason, the way Troy says it, it just makes me want to melt. It brings these intense butterflies to my stomach. And I can't think straight. I get giddy and it makes me blush and happy and excited all at once.

I could easily get away. We didn't have a set girls night. We just ended up here at Hannah's so I wouldn't be ditching them.

But at the same time, as much as I would love to hang out with him, I don't want to be that girl that hangs out with him whenever he says he wants to hang out. I don't want to fall into that pattern. "You're not hanging with your friends?"

"Are you busy?" he ignores the question, "if you're busy, that's fine. But if you're not, I just thought we could get some ice cream or something."

"I'm not busy," I blurt out, ignoring the little voice inside my head, "and ice cream sounds good."

"Okay, good," he chuckles, "because I really want to see you."

And I wanted to see him too.

* * *

"So, what happened, why'd you leave guys night early?" I ask Troy as we're sitting on a bench in old town San Diego.

"Nothing happened," he laughed.

I don't really know if I believe that. I know his best friend in the world is in LA going to school, his two other best friends are back home, and everyone else he would consider a close friend is scattered around the country. So the friends he has in San Diego aren't, like, friends he trusts with his life, you know? They're kind of just school friends. Party friends. Well, at least that's how he described them.

So it's not wrong to assume something happened, right? I mean, he's even said that he wouldn't consider them close friends. "Nothing happened?"

"Nothing happened," he says again, "I just didn't want to be there."

"I don't know if I believe you," I tell him with a small smile and then I grab his hand, "especially because you have a cut right there."

He looked down at his hand and then chuckled a bit, "what, you think I got in a fight with someone?"

I mean, sure. That's exactly why I'm asking. He picked me up, looked a little stressed about something, I noticed his cut, it looks fresh, and so I asked. It's not that farfetched of an idea that he got in a fight because he himself has told me that he can't stand some of the guys and blah blah blah.

And for some reason, I should be upset he hit someone, if he did. I shouldn't want to be with anyone who would hit someone.

Yet, here I am, not mad. Just curious.

"Honestly, nothing happened," he turned to me a bit, "I went out with Jeremy and Brad, grabbed some dinner, drank a beer, and then left because like I said, I didn't want to be there. I called you, asked if you wanted to hang out and now here I am."

"How'd you get the cut?" I eyed his hand again. It's not big or anything, but it is fresh. The blood is drying.

"A cat scratched me."

instant smile o my face. "Shut up. Don't do that."

He laughed and then shook his head, "no, it was at the bar. I'm actually not exactly sure how I got it, but I'm fine. I didn't hit anyone."

Well, okay. I guess I believe him because Jeremy and Brad are his good friends here. That I know for sure. And I shouldn't be questioning him like a mom. That's annoying. But this whole situation is just a little strange to me.

He left guys night to hang out with me? Or did he leave, get home and then think, hey the night's young, why don't I call up Gabriella and see what's up?

"Why do you find this whole thing weird?" he calls me out.

"Oh, I don't," I try to diffuse it, but I'm a horrible liar, "no, I just... you were out with the guys, and now you're... here."

"Yeah, because I want to hang out with you," he says, a bit slow, like he's trying to make a point. "I'm just going to say it... I ditched my friends because we weren't doing anything and I wanted to see you. I wanted to hang out with you. That's it."

Oh wow. Okay. Um. I don't really know how to react.

Obviously, this makes me happy, but it also gives me butterflies and I think I may be blushing. Because is this actually real life right now?

The president of a fraternity is actually into me? Is actually ditching friends to hang out with me? Wants to hang out with me?

At the same time, I'm well aware this could be his tactic. I think he's into me, I don't think this is some kind of sick joke or anything like that. But he's used to getting what he wants, probably. He knows what to say to girls. This isn't his first rodeo. He probably knows exactly how to get the things he wants.

And I just have to be strong. Because right now, it's definitely working. I'm aware, yes, but at the same time, I want nothing more than to jump his bones.

"That's a lot of pressure," I joke, "we're just having ice cream."

"Yeah, and talking. Talking to you is enough." Oh, he knows exactly what he's doing. And like I said, I just have to stay strong. I have to be strong. But in this moment, I'm not. "And looking at you."

I smile at him, lean in and give him a kiss. And he deepens it for a moment before pulling away.

Then, we just sit here, eat our ice cream and enjoy each other's company.

I'm in way over my head, but I don't even care right now.


	11. Chapter 11

"What's your favorite color?"

"Red." So easy. "What's your favorite animal?"

"Dogs, duh," Troy laughs before popping a strawberry in his mouth.

I chuckled. Whose favorite animal isn't a dog? We're playing this game where we just ask each other simple questions. It's been like two weeks of hanging out and we know about each other's family, what we want to do in life, how we grew up, blah blah blah, but we realized we don't know little things about each other because we were sitting on my couch and he told me to stop the channel surfing on How I Met Your Mother because it's his favorite show and for some reason, I didn't expect it so I kind of made a comment about it and then he turned off the TV and suggested we play this game.

And I was all for it. "Right, duh."

"Hmm let's see," he thought about it, "if you could have starred in any movie, which one would it have been?"

See. Fun simple questions. It actually really lets you get a grasp of who the other person is. "I'd say Breakfast at Tiffany's or maybe Legally Blonde."

"Legally Blonde?" he laughed, taking another strawberry from the bowl in the middle of us.

"Yeah, it's SO funny," I defend my answer.

"Your turn."

Hmm, I thought about it for a minute. He was getting creative with these questions so now I have to. What could I possibly ask him? "Okay, if you could only read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be?"

He had a pensive look on his face and it was so freaking hot, oh my gosh. "I think I'd go with Tuesdays with Morrie. Lighthearted, good book."

Oh my gosh, I LOVE Tuesdays with Morrie. I cried. And maybe read it about twenty times. Soo good.

"Pick one ride to ride at Disneyland for the rest of your life," he asks me.

"Oh wow," this one is kind of hard because there's no clear winner here, "umm, let's see. Maybe Space Mountain."

"Love that one," he smiled.

And then he got up to go use the restroom so I used this time to go upstairs really quick and grab a cardigan. It was pretty cold in my house, but it wasn't that cold outside. It's the beginning of October. And we're in Southern California, it's still kind of warm. But we always had the AC running so yeah, I'm cold. And before going back to the living room, I stopped by the kitchen and downed a cup of water. And when I went back to the living room, Troy was standing there, looking at some pictures my mom had around.

"That was in Australia," I tell Troy who immediately turns back and gives me a smile.

"Australia?" he asks, "wow, must've been nice."

"Except for the long plane ride and the jet lag, yeah, it was beautiful. I wanna go back so bad."

I was 14 when we went and I'm actually a little embarrassed that he's looking at that picture. It was the start of high school and I was still going through puberty and yeah, I just looked so different. And I had just taken off my braces so I felt so weird smiling still.

He put the picture back down and then walked back to the couch with me and we resumed our positions, "so you guys travel a lot..."

"Yeah, every summer or winter break, we try to go somewhere new," I nod, "it depends on what everyone has going on, but yeah, we like to travel."

"Where did you go last?"

"Not far," I told him, grabbing a strawberry, "we did a little road trip for about two weeks. We went to the Grand Canyon and then to Utah to visit some friends and from there we went to Yellowstone in Wyoming and yeah. It was cool. But we ended up flying back, though, because it got too much. Well, we knew it was going to be to much so we rented a car from the start."

He looked intrigued, like he wanted to know more about our trip. "I love road trips."

I do, too, actually. "Yeah, they're pretty fun. Unless you're the one driving. But sitting back and listening to music, yep, it's great."

"Do you have any idea where you're going to go next?"

"Actually yeah," I tell him, chewing my strawberry and swallowing before proceeding, "we're thinking of doing Thailand. In like July or August."

"Oh wow," he laughs, "you guys go all out. I wish my family was like that. I mean, we vacation. And we've been to different countries, but not every year and the last place we went was Laughlin. But we do, do those camping trips, like I said, so that's fun."

I laughed. "Hey, I've been there, too. It's... fun."

"It's for old people," he laughed, "can we maybe trade families? Just for trips?"

I'm not actually going to answer because then it could get kind of awkward since I know he's kidding. But when I thought of what I could respond to it, the front door opened and I immediately jerked my head. No one was supposed to be home today. My mom and dad are out of town. And my older brother lives with his girlfriend so I didn't expect him to come. Especially since my parents aren't home. And my younger brother, well, I forgot about him, to be honest.

He threw his keys on the table where everyone put their keys on and before going up the stairs, he glanced over at the living room and realized I was there.

"Oh hey," he tells me, turning positions and walking my way.

"Hey, what're you doing?"

He looked at Troy and then back at me and gave me a look and I knew that look, but I wasn't gonna act on it right now. "Nothing, Cass is coming over right now, well in a little bit and then we're going over to Johnny's to barbeque. I was gonna ask if you wanted to come..."

Oh um, not really. Especially because of who I'm with. Also, he hasn't been here for very long, so we're probably going to keep hanging out, right? I didn't want to cut it short. "Oh, no, maybe next time."

Fuck. I should probably introduce them, right? Yeah, I have to. It'll be so rude not to. "This is Troy," I tell Daniel, "and Troy, this is my brother Daniel."

Troy gets up and sticks out his hand and Daniel comes closer to him and grabs it and does a firm handshake, "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, man, nice to meet you as well," he then looks over at me, "what are you guys up to?"

"Just hanging out," I tell him, "where are you coming from?"

"Oh, well, I've had a long morning," he tells me coming around the couch and taking a seat on the sofa chair diagonal from us, "first I picked up grandma and we went to breakfast and then I had to go to the library to check out a book. I went to Cassandra's because her mom was making some desserts for some bake sale or something so you know I was there to try them. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and now I'm here waiting for her to come over so we can head over to Johnny's together since he lives closer to me than he lives to her."

Troy sort of chuckled, but not me. This was Daniel. Silly, talkative and just sort of out there. Not that this answer completely gives that away, but the way he explained himself, I don't know. Hard to explain. Also, I asked a simple question and the simple answer would have been Cassandra's, but nope.

I guess it is sort of funny. "why didn't you ask me if I wanted to go to breakfast?"

"You were sleeping," he told me in a 'duh' tone, "and it's Friday. You sleep in. Plus, grandma wanted some one on one time with her favorite grandchild."

"Oh please," I roll my eyes and grab my cup of water from the coffee table in front of me.

My brother knows I've been hanging out with some guy, but he doesn't know who is he or anything like that. He hasn't met anyone in my family and I'm not sure I want him to just yet. We're still figuring things out. For all I know, it could be over tomorrow.

And while I was spacing out, I guess my brother and Troy got to talking because Troy just laughed at something my brother said.

"No, yeah, he's like the worst professor ever," my brother shakes his head, "but the class is so easy so far."

"And it's only going to get easier."

Okay, cool, they're talking and they're getting along. I don't really care if my brothers meet him, more so my parents. Especially my mom because that lady gets attached. Like, she's obsessed with my brothers girlfriend so I hope they never break up for her sake. But him and Daniel talking? that's fine.

But then he stood up and answered the door and beautiful Cassandra walked in.

Honestly, she's so gorgeous that I'm still trying to figure out why she's dating my brother.

"Your neighbor is honestly going to grow up to be the cutest boy in the world," is the first thing she tells us as she walks towards me in the living room, "He has SUCH pretty eyes."

"I'm standing right here," Daniel tells her.

"And he's like 10, so relax," she rolls her eyes and puts her purse down and then gives me a hug, "are you coming?"

She then looks up and realizes I have company.

And she's probably taken aback by how good looking he is. "Oh, hi."

"Hey, I'm Troy," he smiles at her and puts out his hand which she gladly accepts.

"Cassandra."

She goes over to the other couch and takes a seat and Daniel grabs a seat back on the sofa chair and we're all just sitting around in silence for a moment or so and it's not uncomfortable, but just a little... funny. No one really knows what to say. I've told Cassandra about him, but she doesn't know much.

Cassandra puts her hair back, leans a little bit forward and speaks up, "So, are you coming?"

I shake my head, "no."

Troy glances over at her and I KNOW for a fact he thinks she's gorgeous and when she gets up, he's going to check her out.

Honestly, Cassandra is beautiful. She could get any guy she wants and for some reason, she just wants my brother. And she's also not one of those girls who thinks she could get whoever she wants. Obviously since she's with my brother. No, just kidding. My brother is attractive. They make an attractive pair. But yeah, she's committed to him so I'm not worried about her hitting on him. I'm just bummed that he's probably attracted to her more than he is to me.

But as soon as I start talking, he turns and looks back at me and sort of puts his back to Cassandra. It's not on purpose, it's just the way he has to sit if he wants to look at me since the furniture is oddly positioned.

"Well, we should get going," Daniel tells Cassandra.

Cass nods and gets up, "Yeah, yeah, I wanna stop by the store."

She says bye to us and once they're out the door, Troy turns to me, smiles and then grabs my face and gives me a kiss. A long one.

And it was so unexpected. "What was that for?"

He laughs as he leans back and just stares at me for a minute. "You're so easy to read, it's cute."

"What?"

"I like you, Gabriella," he tells me, "there's no way I'm going to check out your brother's girlfriend. That's insane."

Oh wow. I honestly didn't think I would be that obvious, but I guess I am. How embarrassing. How freaking embarrassing. "Cassandra's hot."

He laughed, "and so are you. And freaking adorable."

"Sorry," I looked down a bit.

I'm so not used to this. This dating thing is so new to me. Especially with someone like Troy. Someone who could literally get any girl they want. Someone who's confident and probably has so much more experience than me. It's just all so new to me and I don't know how to act sometimes.

"Don't be," he lifts my head up and gives me a kiss.

Man oh man. I like Troy Bolton. And I think I like him quite a lot.


	12. Chapter 12

I'm walking back to my towel to sit down because no, the water is way too cold to go in.

Troy grabs my arm and pulls me towards him, "come on. It's not that cold. Why'd we come anyway if we're not getting in?"

"Um, I don't know? So I can work on my tan or something," I sound like a high maintenance bitch, I'm sure, but I could use a bit of color, "I just put my feet in not long ago, I know it's cold. I'd rather just lay down."

He looked at me to see if I was serious and I was, "you're missing out."

I tried to let go of him, but he wouldn't. I could easily let go, he wasn't holding my hand that hard, but I think subconsciously I didn't want to. This was the first time we were holding hands and it was nice. It wasn't a normal hand hold, obviously. He's trying to pull me in, but still, it was nice.

We both sort of looked at each other before smiles emerged on both of our faces.

He slowly pulled me in and then the two of us walked back towards the water and before I knew it, we were both getting in.

I hated ocean water, but I didn't mind being here right now. In fact, I wanted to be here.

"Is it that cold?"

"No," I breathe out, "it's not."

It is, but being here with him, in his arms, it's not cold at all.

Week three of hanging out has now come to an end. It's Sunday and I really do not want to go to school tomorrow, but I just keep telling myself that it's almost over. Almost halfway through this semester, sort of, and then one more semester and that's it. I'll be done before I know it.

Mostly, though, I just wanted to sit around and watch movies with Troy. And kiss him all day long.

I've grown so comfortable around him, it's crazy. I never thought I could be THIS comfortable around someone that's so attractive, but he makes it easy.

"Do you want to come home with me next weekend," he asks me suddenly as I'm wiping my eyes, "I'm going home for my sister's birthday."

Oh wow. Okay. I'll obviously meet his parents, right? Which is ironic because I'm currently where he's at too, I guess. I was gonna ask him if he wanted to come over for dinner tonight. So you know... he can meet my parents. I think it's time.

I mean, we're not official, but I can see us heading that way and I want my parents to meet a guy before he becomes my boyfriend. I'm doing it in reverse.

"Only if you come over for dinner tonight."

"Yeah?" he swam a little closer, "I can do that. What time?"

"6," I tell him, wrapping my arms around him and then my feet around his body, "or whatever time you want."

He wrapped his arms around my waist and then closed the gap between us by kissing me.

Ugh, I'm so in like with this guy. It's absolutely crazy. All I want to do is hang out with him and talk to him. We talked for an hour on the phone the other day and I honestly think it was about nothing, but just being on the phone with him, hearing his phone... ugh, I haven't been this smitten since, well, forever. My last boyfriend, it was a slow start and it wasn't until a month of hanging out in groups and as friends that I saw something more.

But it's just different with Troy.

I feel like he puts in so much time with me. Like last weekend he ditched yet another party to hang out with me when I told him he didn't have to.

Obviously, I wanted him to, but I didn't want to be that girl that took him away from his life, you know? I'm sure he enjoys those parties. He's in a frat after all, but still. It was nice that he wanted to stay in and order some take out with me since no one was home.

"Can't wait," he gives me one more peck before letting me go and swimming away.

Gah, I'm slightly obsessed with him... in a totally normal way.

* * *

So far, so good.

Maybe Troy's done this a bunch of times, maybe not, but he has a way of talking to parents.

My mom is loving him, I can tell. She's asking questions about his family, about his childhood, school, everything you could possibly imagine and he's giving her an answer to each and so much more. In depth answers. And it's like he wouldn't even care if she got too personal.

And my dad, well, they talked about his internship, his work, sports. All that.

My brother basically just sat there, chiming in every once in a while, but I don't think he really had any questions for him because he's hung out with him once before and they got along fine. It was chill.

"So, Troy," my mom picks up the conversation again once it goes dead for a moment, "how did you like growing up in Laguna?"

"Oh, I loved it," he answered her, reaching for his water, "the epitome of a beach town. Everyone knows everyone, but at the same time, it's not that small of this town. But it was great. Definitely somewhere I wouldn't mind moving back to."

My mom smiled. She loved Laguna. She lived there for four years when she was younger, so she can relate... a bit.

And of course, she was going to talk about it. "I lived there for about four years and I loved it. I was so sad when my dad's job relocated him. It's so homey, so beachy, and it just feels like a little community. I love visiting."

"Yeah, I try to go back as much as I can. Thankfully it's not too long of a drive. I planned it that way, because there's nothing like Nick's."

"Oh Nick's," my mom claps her hands together, "you are so right. One of the best spots in Laguna."

They started talking about it, and while my mom only spent four years there, she fell in love with it and knew pretty much everything so she could talk about how much she loves it all night long, to be honest.

I took this time to get up and use the restroom since everything seemed to be going fine. My dad was being super nice, my mom was being super nice, and my brother was laughing along, chiming in every once in a while. My other brother couldn't make it, unfortunately, but maybe in a way that's good because then it'd be like this big deal. And so it's nice that it's just the people that live at home.

And while I was upstairs, I went to my room to grab my phone where I left it charging while we were having dinner.

But the last thing I expected was a text from my ex boyfriend.

**I know we haven't talked in a while, but I'm in town for the weekend and thought maybe we could meet up, talk and stuff. **

Talk and stuff?

what's there to talk about?

But honestly, if this was over a month ago, I'd be all for it. Obviously in secret so my friends and family wouldn't know. But I would go, I would hear what he had to say, probably soak it all up, be giddy around him, think that maybe we could make it work, and yeah.

Now, though, as I'm standing here reading this, nothing is coming to me. I'm literally feeling nothing.

No happiness, no excitement, nothing. I don't want to meet up with him. I don't want to hear what he has to say. And I don't want to get back with him.

And I don't think it has to do with Troy directly, but the fact that I know I can be with someone else and be happy is what is making me feel nothing right now, I think. I was so caught up in thinking that Brian was it because I was living in a fairytale, thinking that we were college sweethearts or whatever and we'd get married young and blah blah blah. But that wasn't reality. And I know I can move on from it. I have moved on from it.

If Brian was supposed to be the one for me, I wouldn't be moved on from it.

I'd still be pining and sobbing and wishing he was here with me, but that's not the case. I don't think about him in that way and things are good now.

So, I take a deep breath, tell him that I can't and then delete the messages altogether.

And then I cling on to my phone, dab some chapstick on, walk out of my room and downstairs to join everyone else again. And when I walk into the dining room, my mom is on her ipad, showing Troy something, my dad is leaning in to see as well and my brother is on the other side of them, laughing.

This is where my focus should be right now.

And I'm so happy it is.


	13. Chapter 13

"You guys!" Leah comes into Peyton's house, throwing her hands in the air, "guess who I just saw?!"

I was busy in the kitchen waiting for my popcorn to pop, but I peeked my head out to see what in the world she was talking about. She was standing in the living room, looking frazzled about something and Peyton and Hannah were just staring.

She put her bag down on the couch and walked over to the other side, "Brian. I just saw fucking Brian at the fucking Cottage!"

Right away, I walked out, "you saw Brian?"

Leah looked up at me, like she had just seen a ghost. "Oh, um. I, I didn't know you were here."

"My car's right outside," I laughed, "it's okay. I'm fine."

"Well, yeah," she shrugs, looking from me to Peyton and Hannah, "shit. I thought you went with your brother and Cass. I was going to relay a message to Pey and Hannah and then we were supposed to figure out what to do with it, if we should tell you, if we just let it go and pretend he didn't tell me..."

Leah was too much sometimes. I love how she's approaching this. "I'm fine, Lee."

Peyton turned around, "she's over it."

"I'm over it," I announce to her, since she wasn't here 20 minutes ago when I was telling them about dinner last night and the text I got, "so really, whatever he told you, it doesn't really matter. I realized that I don't feel anything anymore and I'm moving on... for good."

"Yeah?" Leah looks relieved, "you really like Troy, huh?"

I don't wanna throw out the word, really, because it hasn't been that long. "I just think that if I'm able to feel something else for someone, and I'm able to not think about Brian, then it's not what I thought it was. It's not this whole true love thing. And when he texted me yesterday, saying he's in town and we should talk, I didn't feel anything over it so, I think it's just water under the bridge now, you know?"

Leah sighed and sat down, "oh thank God. He told me he misses you and all this and I didn't know what the fuck to do with it. I didn't want to ruin anything."

"I figured it out," I smiled at her, thankful for her friendship, "I'm okay."

"Good," she says, getting comfortable on the couch before sitting up in a panic, "oh my gosh, how'd it go with Troy and your parents?"

I told her to hold on as I went to grab my popcorn. I poured it in a big bowl and then grabbed a water from the fridge and came over and sat next to Peyton on the couch across from her and Hannah.

After getting situated, I smiled just thinking about it again. "Really good. They didn't ask any crazy questions or make it tense or anything. And he had so many things to talk to my parents about. You know how my mom loves Laguna, well, he's from there so they talked for a while about that. My dad and him... he basically wants to be my dad when he grows up and my dad was soaking all that in. It was nice. It was comfortable."

"So, you think your parents approve?" Hannah asks me.

"I think so," I shrug, "I didn't specifically ask that, but he left, and they both said they liked him."

Peyton smiled at me as she turned to grab some popcorn, "well, that's great. Your mom sees through the bullshit. Remember Patrick? She told you to never see him again because he's not to be trusted or something like that."

And she was absolutely right. "Yeah, then the next day he got back with his ex girlfriend. I can't believe how crazy that was."

They laughed and Hannah came over to grab some popcorn for herself, "so that's good. It's a step in the right direction, right? Your parents loving him."

"Yeah," I nod, "although, of course my mom has some worries about you know, his lifestyle. Just like you assholes. But it's fine. I get it. It's a universal thing to be wary of frat guys. She got burned by one and she just doesn't want me to."

"That can easily change, though," Leah tells me, who's been the biggest supporter of Troy and I out of all of them, "I'm pretty sure his personality, what he says, his goals and dreams and all that, is all there and what you're getting is the truth, you know?"

I feel that way, too. And I mean, he has cut down on partying. I know because he's been spending weekends with me.

But I completely get it. I put myself in their shoes and I know for a fact if Hannah told me she was seeing this frat guy she met at a party, I'd roll my eyes and anticipate the day he'd screw her over so I was justified in feeling that way. I get it. I get their concerns and their worries, but they're not feeling what I'm feeling. They're not with us everyday we spent together. They don't hear what we talk about. They don't see how we are with each other.

And it feels more than just this fling. It really, really does.

It feels real. It feels deep. And mature. And like it could really be something great.

I know it can. I know it can be great.


	14. Chapter 14

"Gabriella?" Troy's mom asks me once she opens the door for us, "I'm Carole. Come in, come in!"

I smiled at her and stepped in with Troy behind me carrying our bags. "It's so nice to meet you," I tell her like anyone would. But really, it is nice. I've heard so much about her and finally getting to meet her is a little nerve wracking, but amazing.

She closed the door behind us and gave both of us hugs immediately, "it's so lovely to meet you. I'm happy you could make it out."

"Yeah, thanks for letting me stay here."

"Oh, of course! Anytime," she tells me putting her hand on my shoulder and directing me to the back with Troy following behind us with a smile.

I came to Laguna because Troy was coming and he wanted me to meet his family, show me around a bit. My friend Lindsay lives here so I was going to crash at her place later on, but his mom was pretty adamant about me staying. So here I am...

It felt so welcoming. And I mean, I expected this because I've heard all about his family, but it's nice to actually experience it. And I hope my family was just as welcoming to Troy as Carole's being right now to me. I feel like I could literally move in right now and she'd smile and say that it was fine.

Troy caught up and put his hand on my shoulder as his mom walked ahead of us. "She comes off strong, but she means well."

I laughed and ignored it because we were now out back and she had the cutest little set up for lunch. Troy's dad, I'm assuming, is sitting at the end of the table reading a newspaper while Kelsey is on the phone.

"You guys!" Carole called out to them.

Kelsey said something on the phone and then got off and his dad looked up before putting his newspaper down.

Troy went to hug his dad and then his sister before turning back to me, "Dad, this is Gabriella. And Gabriella, this is my dad Jack."

It looked like he was going to shake my hand, but in the end he leaned in for a hug and it was nice. It was welcoming. "Nice to meet you, Gabriella," he tells me as he backs away, "are you hungry? Carole's been making lunch all morning."

"Have not," Carole swatted his arm gently, looking a little embarrassed.

Kelsey then spoke up, "it's nice to see you again."

I smiled at her, "you, too."

She looked nice, but she also looked like any sister would look like when their sibling brings someone home. A little intimidating. So you know, I was maybe going to keep my distance and let her talk to me when she wants to talk to me, you know? I didn't want to say anything that would make her hate me.

"Now, we're just waiting on Alison," Carole says looking down at her watch, "she went to the mall, but she should be back shortly, I hope."

"Yeah, right," Jack scoffed, "that girl can shop for hours."

Troy grabbed my hand and we walked around to the empty seats, him taking a seat next to his dad and me taking a seat across from Kelsy, leaving the seat in front of Troy open for Alison. And Carole sat to my right. It was nice. I liked the seating arrangement.

And I loved their backyard. It was nice and cozy.

"Sorry!" we heard coming from behind us and when we turned, I saw a gorgeous taller version of Kelsey walking towards us, "you know how I am."

"Yes, we do," Carole laughed, "come sit down. Meet Gabriella."

She came up to us, a smile on her face already and looked down at me since I was sitting down, "it's so nice to meet you."

I smiled back at her. She seemed friendlier than Kelsey, that's for sure. "You too."

And then she looked at Troy and squealed. "Ahhh Troy," she ran over to him and hugged him from behind. Those awkward hugs you give to someone when they're already sitting down, "I've missed you, it's been like what? Who knows. Way too long, though."

"I know," Troy laughed as she walked around to take her seat, "well we're both only an hour away from here, but from each other? We're two."

"It sucks," she sits down, "I miss you."

"Yeah, and I miss you, too," he tells her before he pours himself some lemonade and me some.

Carole gets up and goes inside only to come out with another pitcher of lemonade. But this one's pink. "I'm not sure which one to bring out. I know my kids prefer regular lemonade, but do you want some of this? It's delicious. My mother's recipe."

Actually, I love pink lemonade, "yeah, sure."

She smiled and poured me some in her cup and handed it to me as she took my cup to drink and set the pitcher down in the middle of the table.

And then we all served ourselves lunch. Spaghetti. One of my favorites. And Hawaiian dinner rolls. Oh my gosh, I can seriously overdose on them. They're amazing and I want to eat like ten but I know I shouldn't. Not in front of them. I want to leave a good impression on them.

"So you're from the San Diego area?" his dad asks me.

"Yep born and raised," I tell him putting my fork down for a minute, "I was actually thinking of moving out to LA, but I just couldn't do it."

"I was the same way," he smiled at me as he grabbed a roll from the center, "I deferred last minute to go to NYU and stayed here and went to UC Irvine and there's not one day I regret it. Moving out is just not for everyone."

He made me feel a little better about it. I mean, I was in a home where 2 out of 3 kids have moved out. Were they going to think I'm some little girl?

But whatever. I pushed that to the back of my mind and agreed with him, "yeah, I'll have to go away eventually for law school so my time will come."

"Oh right, law," he waits to shove some bread in his mouth, "you want to be a lawyer."

I look over at Troy who's looking down at his food. Awwww, he told them a bit about me and what I want to do. How sweet. "Yeah, yeah, that's the plan. We'll see. Anything can happen."

His mom then chimed in, followed by his sister and before I knew it, we were on a full on conversation about school and such.

And then an hour had passed and we talked about everything I could imagine. My family, my faith, what I like to do, and it was nice. They're such a nice family and Kelsey seemed to open up a little more. I get she's a teenager. She's 17. She probably wants to be out with her friends. Or she doesn't like me, who knows. But it got a little better with her. She did talk to me.

"I'm so sad Jack and I are going to that dinner in LA tonight," Carole tells me once we're all getting ready to get up, "it would have been so nice to spend some more time with you."

"Yeah, we're staying there for the night," Jack chimed in.

Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, so it's just us and his sisters tonight? Cool. Well, actually, I'm not sure about that.

But I guess we'll see.

* * *

"Are you Troy's girlfriend?" some girl with really blonde hair and heavy, heavy make up came up to me as I'm standing in line for the bathroom.

"Oh um," I was about to say yes, but then I realized that... I'm not. I'm not his girlfriend. "No."

She laughed, "Oh okay. I was about to say..."

What? "Say what?"

She was going to open her mouth to speak, but then Troy's sister came out of nowhere and called her out. "Hey, Mel, I think Jackson was looking for you. He said something about you wanting to hook up with him?"

Her eyes widened and she immediately turned around and left, running outside.

Alison came up to me and gave me a small smile. "Don't listen to whatever she told you. She's delusional."

"Who is she?" I asked, "she didn't say much, though."

"Melissa," she tells me, "she has a way of making people uncomfortable to please herself. She had the biggest crush on Troy their senior year and he wasn't into her so she's probably bitter. Probably like most of these girls are, if I'm being honest."

Of course. Of course every girl at this party had a crush on Troy. Who wouldn't? "Yeah, I expect it."

She laughed and took a sip of her beer. "Don't worry about it, though."

I'm not sure what that means, but the person who was in the bathroom came out, so I went in. We were at his cousin's birthday. She was a year older than Kelsey, but her sister is Troy's age so there were people here who went to school with Troy, who are going to school with Kelsey and who went to school with his cousin during her year. A lot of people. So yeah, I'm sure all these girls at one point in their lives liked Troy Bolton. I'm fully aware that I'm lucky.

I got out of the bathroom and I saw Troy leaning against the wall looking down at his phone.

"Hey," I walk up to him.

He looks up and gives me a smile, "hey."

What's he doing here? Wasn't he just outside with some of his friends. "What are you doing? Do you need to use the bathroom?"

He shook his head, "no, I was just waiting for you. Do you want to go soon or what?"

I looked down at my watch. It was 12:30. Holy fuck. I didn't even know it was so late. I can't believe we've been here for four hours. And you know what? It was pretty fun. It wasn't awkward at all with anyone. And I got along with his friends and his cousins. Everyone was super nice and it felt nice.

If he wanted to stay longer, I was all for it. "I'm okay, unless you want to?"

"I kind of want to get Kelsey home," he tells me, "she's to the point where she's going to pass out soon so I'd rather she passes out in her own bed."

"Oh, well, yeah, I'm ready whenever you are, yeah."

He smiled at me and then we went to go look for her and she was outside dancing around with a red cup in her hand looking like she was having the time of her life. And when Troy went up to her, she swatted him away saying she didn't want to go home.

He tried again. And nope. nothing.

"Leave her here," Lily, his cousin, comes up to him, "she can spend the night, don't worry about it. I'll take her upstairs soon."

"Yeah, but still, you won't be able to keep an eye on her, you'll be out here."

And then Alison came out of nowhere, "I'll take her home. I'm leaving in a bit, anyway."

Troy shrugged and agreed and then turned to face me. "Do you still want to leave now or what? I'm getting a bit tired."

"Yeah, it's up to you."

So we did. We're leaving. I said bye to whoever Troy said bye to and then I grabbed a water on my way out before we headed to his car. He didn't drink at all, thank God since I didn't know my way around here.

Before I know it, we're home and he's taking off his shoes and getting comfortable. So I take off my shoes go straight to the guest room and change out of these clothes and throw on some sweats and a sweatshirt. I grab my toothbrush, face wash and go to the bathroom and do my daily night routine.

"You good?" Troy peeks his head into the bathroom, "you need anything?"

"I'm fine," I tell him before brushing my teeth.

He leaves and I continue to do my thing and when I come out of the bathroom, Troy's in the hallway waiting for me looking as hot as ever.

He's wearing sweats and that's it.

"My sister's aren't coming home after all," he told me looking down at her phone, "they're just gonna crash there."

"Oh," is all that manages to come out of my mouth, "okay."

So we have the house to ourselves? For the first time in the whole time we're dating, we're going to be by ourselves? At night? Like it could have easily happened at his frat house, but no. I never stayed there and I never wanted to stay there. It's way too early for us to have sex and I really hope he doesn't try. I mean, I'm all for making out, but ugh, now I'm nervous. I'm nervous this is what he wants. People nowadays have sex like nothing. And I mean, even after a month of dating. But I'm not like them at all. I want to be in love when I have sex with someone. And I want it to mean something... special.

"Are you tired?" he asks me, "do you want to watch a movie or something?"

"Sure," I wasn't tired at all.

So we do. He climbs into bed with me and turns on the TV and goes to the movie channels and searches through all of them. "I don't think there's anything really good on. Wanna try on demand?"

Umm. Sure. I'm not even thinking about movies at this point. All I'm thinking about is sex. "Yeah, sure, if you want. Up to you."

He then turns off the TV and turns to me. "I'm over it."

Oh fuuuuck.

He smiles at me and then leans down and gives me a kiss and everything I was thinking about was now out of my mind. All I care about right now is kissing him. I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him in closer, but he does the same so I'm now basically in his lap.

God, he tasted so good. And this is all I wanted to do all night long.

He slowly pushed me to the side and got on top of me. Lightly. And pushed my hair out of my face and gave me kisses all down my neck which sent chills down my spin. This was all too much, but I didn't care at the moment. I think I wanted this, but I'm not thinking clearly. He has me hypnotized. And my god, his tongue in my mouth feels so right. And then his lips on my neck feels right. And this is all I want.

Do I want this? Should I?

We're in way too deep, I think. It's going to be so hard to just push him off and walk away from all of this. "Troy," I breathe out.

But he silences me by pushing his lips onto my lips again.

And after a few more minutes of making out, I know it's wrong and I know I should speak up and stop this, but I just... I can't. I can't. And I'm terrified that I'm actually going to go through with this. I'm legit terrified and I don't know what to do. Am I honestly going to go through with this?

He then gets up off of me, though, "I, I have to go."

Wait. What? He jumps off the bed and straightens himself up and then leaves the room and it's the weirdest thing ever. Shit. Am I the worst at foreplay? Granted, I've only had sex with two people. And they were both boyfriends.

I'm honestly confused by what's going on here. And I want to chase after him and ask, but I don't.

I don't. I just fall back and eventually fall asleep... confused.

Confused as hell.

What in the world just happened?


	15. Chapter 15

"So what?" Hannah got situated on the floor of my room with her chips and salsa in front of her and her drink off to the side, "he's just been weird?"

"Yeah," I tell her as I'm folding some clothes, "it sucks."

"Okay, rewind a bit. Go back to a couple of days ago," she tells me.

So I do. I think about that night and then the next day. "We were fine the next day. I mean, not exactly normal, but he wasn't acting like he is now. We went to lunch with his oldest sister and then we came back and headed home. And on the ride home, I fell asleep. But I thought things were fine."

Hannah nods and grabs some chips, "okay and then for the past three days, he's sort of just been blowing you off or what?"

"No," I grab a pair of socks and fold them together, "we've hung out, but he's just been... distant. Quiet."

"Quiet, hmm. What does that mean?"

"I mean, he did blow me off yesterday so that sucked," I walk over to my dresser and put some socks and underwear away, "but I'm not gonna call him out on it when it's only been that once. But yeah, quiet. Just, like, not how it used to be."

Hannah looked like she was really trying to figure this out and that was sweet of her. "Why do you think? Like, you were pretty much all for having sex."

Ugh. "I wasn't for it, but it probably seemed like it. I hope to God I would have stopped it before he did if he hadn't."

"Okay, well you didn't stop it therefore he can't be mad or upset with you over that," she decided, "so what do you think it is?"

Yeah, no. I don't think it was that, either. I definitely looked like I wanted to have sex with him. I didn't stop him no matter how badly I wanted to. Okay, no, I definitely wanted to continue making out, but no sex.

So yeah, I honestly don't know what it is that's making him seem... distant. "I have no idea, Han, but I don't have the energy to really find out."

"What do you mean?" she looks up at me, almost glaring, "he's pretty much your boyfriend, you HAVE to find out why he's being shady."

"He's not being shady," I correct her, "he just maybe doesn't seem as interested."

Or maybe I'm honestly just looking too deep into it. I mean, Monday, he asked me to get some lunch and we got lunch, he kissed me like he always does and then I came home, we talked on the phone a bit, I took a shower, I texted him throughout the night... it was pretty normal.

Tuesday, we studied. But usually when we study, we don't really study. It consists of laughing, him sneaking kisses and us laughing some more.

But this time, we actually studied.

Hannah rolled her eyes, "oh please, he's, like, four weeks in. I'm sure he's even more interested now than before. Maybe he's just going through something."

She was such a good best friend. Always lifting me up.

"Maybe," I shake it off, "it's not to the point where it's worrying me, but I mean, it's just not normal. We've spent almost everyday together and I don't need to, but we have and it's always been light and fun and I always walk away from it thinking about how much I like him and stuff, but now, I obviously still am crazy about him, but maybe we're just getting comfortable? Maybe that's what it is?"

"Yeah," Hannah nods, "could be. Maybe he just feels like he has you already and doesn't need to be so.. into you. Well, show that he's so into you."

"I guess, I don't know," I shrug, trying not too think about it too much.

She stuffed her mouth with some chips, dusted off her hands and washed it down with her coke. "Gabs, listen to me, you're being paranoid. I know I always told you to be careful and have had my doubts, but I'm kind of in a different head space now that I've been around you two. He really likes you and maybe it has nothing to do with you. Maybe it's family stuff. School stuff."

Wow. I never thought of that.

Maybe he is going through some things. I mean, he's going home this weekend when last weekend when we were there, he said he probably wouldn't be back for another couple of weeks. So maybe something is going on at home,.

"I'm not going to say anything," I decide, "just going to leave things how they are and if it gets to be too much, then I will."

"Yeah, just wait it out, it's been, like, what, four days?"

Ha, yeah. It's Thursday. So yes, I think I'm just panicking because since I've known him, it's been this insane thing between us... always talking, always hanging out, and never being upset or getting upset with each other. So it's all new to me. But I guess this is what happens the longer you're with someone, the more things change or the more you see. Maybe I'm seeing him go through some things and I didn't even think about that, you know?

So I'm not going to think about it anymore.

I really don't want to because I like him and I don't want to think it has anything to do with me.

But in the back of my mind, I can't help, but think it has to do with me because he did stop all of a sudden. He did push himself off and leave. And even since that moment, something has felt... off. A bit different. And I hope to God it just goes away soon because I can't stand it.

And because I think I'm _really_ starting to like him.


	16. Chapter 16

"Come on, it'll be fun," Leah tells me as I put the car in park and turn off the engine, "this guy has the sickest house!"

I can tell he has the sickest house, it's huge and it looks like a real rager is taking place right now, but I'm just not in the mood. But when am I ever for a party? Yeah, not lately. "I'm just really tired and I know I agreed to this, but can I leave?"

Leah immediately looked over at me and took off her seatbelt, "No, fuck you. You're coming. I know you're not giving me a ride home, but at least stay an hour with me and have fun!"

Ugh, easy for her to say. She didn't just have the longest day of her life. I honestly just want to have a nice night in with my girls and drink wine and eat chocolate and talk about life, but nope. Leah wants to be here and everyone else is busy so what's a girl to do? This. This is what I'm doing. At a stupid party. And I don't even know this guy. Leah does, but not me.

"Fine," I got out of the car and walked around to meet up with her, "one hour and that's it."

She smiled at me and linked arms and off we went.

We walked through the house and there were people scattered all around, but when we got to the back, that's where the party really was at. There were a ton of people EVERYWHERE. And that's crazy considering how big this house is. Seriously, it's such a nice house. Maybe I will stay for a while...

Leah unlinked her arm with mine and pulled me over to the bar, "one drink won't hurt, right?" she asks me.

"It won't," I tell her, "but I don't really want anything, though."

"Fine," she rolls her eyes and turns back and grabs a drink for herself. Probably some captain morgan and coke, her go to drink. "How amazing is this house? I'm sure we can have fun."

No, yeah, that wasn't the problem. The problem is, I'm not much of a partier and ever since I broke up with Brian and started my senior year, my friends want to take me out and it's not me. I'm not a party girl no matter how hard I try. I let this be their world for most of college, they would go to parties and have fun and I'd hang out with Brian or some of our other friends that went to different schools. And I don't really care to be apart of it. But I mean, I am dating a fraternity guy, so maybe I should try to enjoy this, step into this world and have fun with it.

It's so hard, though.

Leah grabs my hand and drags me to this group of people, who are her friends of course and right away they start talking about stuff I don't understand.

And while they're talking, I'm looking around the place. Seriously, this place is so nice.

But I didn't expect to see Troy when doing so.

Nope.

And I definitely didn't expect him to be talking to this girl, laughing along at whatever she was saying while sipping on a beer.

WHAT THE FUCK?! He is supposed to be in Laguna Beach.

Noooo. He's supposed to be at home. He's supposed to be at him with his family! He even texted me, like, an hour ago telling me he was at home. And now he's here...? Like what the fuck. Why would he lie to me? Why would he tell me he was going home? He could have easily just told me he had other plans and I would have totally been fine with that. There has to be more. There's a reason he's lying and if he wants to hook up with sluts, he can hook up with them.

Ugh. I am so fucking pissed right now. SOO pissed.

"I'll be right back," I tell Leah who doesn't even really bother to turn around.

This is fate finding out. I was supposed to find out. This party is 20 minutes away and it's people that don't even go to UCSD. They go to San Diego State. It's not totally different, but different parties for different schools typically. So yeah, if I wasn't here, chances are I'd never find out. But I am. I am freaking here because Leah had no one else to come with and her friends weren't coming until later, so she begged me. And now I see Troy with my own two eyes talking and laughing with some girl. A girl who looks GORGEOUS. Ugh.

And I know I have to confront him, head on. I can't wait until Sunday night when he "comes home."

Nope. I have to do it right now. I have to.

I make my way over to him, squeeze my way through some people and then walk right up to him. "How's Laguna?"

The smile on his stupid face instantly disappears as he looks away from this girl and up at me. And it looks like he's seen a ghost or something. WHICH IS GOOD. "Gabriella," he says, right away getting up, "no, look, it's not..."

"Yeah, not what I think, not what it looks like..." I finish his sentence for him, "most cliche thing, ever, and total bullshit. Fuck you."

This wasn't the plan. I was going to ask him why he lied, all of that, but right now, I don't even want to be in his presence. I took one look at the girl he was with and while she was gorgeous, she looked mortified at what was going on. Does she think I'm his girlfriend? I'm acting like it. Maybe I have no right to act like this, but I mean, we've been hanging out for like a month, I feel like I can even if we aren't official. Even if technically I'm not his girlfriend.

I look back at him, shake my head in disgust and then bolt out of there.

On the way out, I tell Leah I'm going to the bathroom because I don't want her to leave with me. She deserves to have fun. I'll text her later and tell her I left and that I'm sorry, but once she finds out why, she'll understand. It's better this way.

"Gabriella!" I hear him call my name.

I don't turn around, I keep walking to my car as I struggle to take my keys out of my purse.

But he catches up and puts his hand on my shoulder, trying to turn me around. "Please, talk to me. Please. I'm so sorry."

Ugh I don't want to talk to him, but he keeps saying my name and it's making it really hard to ignore him. Man oh man. "Don't touch me," I kind of yell at him, getting away from him, "if you don't want to be tied down then don't fucking act like you want to be, like that's where it's headed."

"No, Gabriella," he shakes his head, "you don't understand."

"I understand!" I tell him, backing up, trying to get away from him. I don't even want to be in his presence. I'm so mad. "What I don't really understand is why people want to fucking party all the time, get wasted and do the same shit over again. This isn't me and it will never be me. So if that's what you want, then go for it! Sorry I kept you from partying. Just leave me the fuck alone. I don't want to talk to you. I don't even want to look at you right now."

Troy looked like he felt so bad, but I wasn't buying that. He obviously can't feel that bad if he was in there having a good time. Fuck this. And fuck him.

He tried to get a bit closer to me, but once he saw me back up, he stopped. "Look, it's only you, okay? I want you to know that. There's no question about that. It's only you, Gabriella."

"Bullshit!" I basically scream. "I don't want to hear it. I'm done. I'm just... go back to that girl. Go back to the party. I'm over it."

And with that, I walked away and got to my car as fast as I could.

Once I was inside and I saw him walk back into the party, I sat there. I sat there and cried. Tears were rolling down my face and I couldn't believe it. I was crying over this guy who just lied to me. A guy I've only known for a short while, but for practically a month, made me believe that he was genuinely interested in me. I'm crying because I fell for him. I fell for IT. And because I knew it was wrong. I pretended like I didn't think he'd do anything to hurt me, but that's what I wanted to think and I made myself believe it could work. But deep down, I knew that it wasn't going to end in marriage and babies and yet, I still went out with him. I still fell for him.

And that's what hurts the most right now. I went against my better judgement and he fucked me over.

Fuck Troy Bolton.


	17. Chapter 17

Hannah, don't," I stuff my face into my pillow and bring the covers over my head.

"What?" she says, closing my room door and coming over to the side of my bed, "Gabriella, talk to me... I'm here."

I know she's here. And I know she wants me to be okay. But it's just... embarrassing. Humiliating. Everything they warned me about turned out to be true. He was looking for a good time and that's it. He obviously can't stay away from his lifestyle, the girls, the parties, all of it. And I just don't fit into it.

But I don't want to talk about it. "I'm not in the mood."

"We're not going to say anything," she tells me, putting her drink down on my nightstand, "we just want to know how you're feeling."

We? I peek out and see who else was here but no one was. Oh, maybe she was just referring to Peyton and Leah trying to talk to me yesterday but I shut them out. "I'm fine. I'll be fine. I'm just mad right now and I don't want to talk about it."

She doesn't buy it. I can tell by the look on her face that she doesn't.

I'm not that fine.

Because I really liked Troy Bolton.

It was only a month since that first date and somehow he managed to pull me in. He managed to make me think about him in the morning when I'd wake up, throughout the day while I was busy, and at night when I'd be laying in bed. He made me want to spend my weekends with him. I shared things with him- my hopes and dreams and I thought they meant something to him. I thought I could tell him all those things because he felt something with me.

But I guess not. Because he lied to me. And he was with some other girl at a stupid party he wasn't supposed to be at.

"It's like you guys were in a relationship," Hannah says, "so I get it. I get it was a short time, but you guys spend a lot of time together and I get it. I get you're sad and you have every reason to be. But I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you should have expected this, how did you not see it coming..."

"You basically are!" I exclaim, puling my head out, "I get it. I screwed up. I'm an idiot!"

"Shut up, you're putting words in my mouth," she takes a seat on my bed, "I'm not that kind of friend and I never will be, but I am the kind of friend that wants to know how you are so get up and let's go get lunch."

Hannah's right. She's not that kind of friend. She doesn't get pleasure out of being right. She doesn't want to be right about this. I know that.

But I'm just in this weird funk and I'm taking it out on her and she doesn't deserve it one bit.

"Sorry," I sit up and I could feel the tears forming and it's honestly really ridiculous because I wasn't with this guy for long. We never made it official, but it felt official and I don't think we needed the title. I was his girlfriend. I was basically his girlfriend and we both knew that. "I'm just really bummed out."

"I know you are and you have every right to feel that way, I just don't want you to bottle things up. Talk about them."

"It's hard, Han. I thought we had something great."

She sighs, bringing her legs up and sitting crisscrossed on my bed, directly in front of me. "You one hundred percent feel like he had intentions of hooking up with that girl, being with her or whatever? You fully believe that?"

I don't know. I really, really don't. "No idea, but he also lied to me. Because he lied about being there, makes me think that yes, maybe something was going on. Maybe he wanted to hook up with her. Maybe he wants to see other girls, you know?"

"Right. He lied about going home, you found him at a party talking to another girl, but he's denying it?"

"Yeah," I shrug, "and like, I get it, we were hanging out A LOT. All day, everyday it seemed like. I get he needs his space and maybe that's why he..."

"No," Hannah cuts me off, "no, no, now you're just making excuses for him. I'm not going to sit here and say, oh maybe nothing was going on, maybe you're right, he needed a little space and didn't know how to tell you so he lied. NO, that's bullshit. He's an adult and if he has no problem telling you he likes you and loves hanging out with you, then he should have no problem telling you that he may need a little space. Don't do that. Don't make excuses for him so it doesn't seem like... I don't know. But I'm also not going to sit here and accuse him of doing something because I was not there."

She's right. I can't make excuses for him. He lied to me, point blank.

We were hanging out a lot, and it even got to the point where I wanted an afternoon to myself to just chill out, but he lied to me. And he went to some party and was hanging out with some girl. And I saw that with my own to eyes. There's absolutely no way around that.

And I don't know if I can move on from it.

"It's not like he did this unforgivable thing like impregnate someone," I start telling Hannah, "but in that moment, I realized that maybe our lives don't line up. He obviously lied to me because he wanted to go to a party and he didn't want me there. He didn't want me to go with him or else he would have invited me if it wasn't this big deal. But yeah,that's his thing. It's been girls and parties for so long and suddenly, I come in, and it changes and..."

"And you just feel like you don't belong. Like, you guys are two different?"

"Sort of, I mean, we've spent countless hours talking about life and what we want from it. He's a good guy, I know he is, he has goals and ambitions but that doesn't mean he's monogamous. That doesn't mean he doesn't like to party. He's the fucking president for crying out loud. And here I came, taking him away from his duties. Arranging hang outs. And it's just probably not what he wants right now. He wants his cake and wants to eat it, too."

Hannah frowned, "I'm sorry."

It's fine. I'll be fine. I know I will. It just sucks right now.

Because in the shortest of time, I was falling for Troy fucking Bolton.

Ugh.

* * *

"Can I please talk to you?"

"I'm in a hurry," I tell Troy, clutching onto my book and trying to get past him.

"Please," he urges, trying to block me from walking to the parking lot, "I tried texting and calling you yesterday."

I know he did. And since I didn't pick up or text back, he should get the hint that I don't want to talk to him. AT ALL. I'm just still so upset and it's all still so fresh that I want some time. Or maybe I just don't ever want to talk to him again. "I really have nothing to say to you. You lied to me."

He looked around at the people passing us and then grabbed my hand and moved me to the side, but I immediately snatched it away from him.

"I know this isn't the place, but I wasn't going to show up to your house."

"Troy, I really have nothing to say to you," I tell him, "if you wanna fuck other girls, fuck other girls. If you want to party all night long, party all night long. I'm not the girl for you, okay? I think you and I both know that."

"Don't say that," he says, "it's not like that and if you could just let me explain, I'd love to."

I look around and thankfully, no one I know was around. I sighed, almost giving in, but I just really and truly did not want to talk to him. He lied to me, he was at a party with some girl LAUGHING, practically flirting and if he's doing that when we're not even boyfriend and girlfriend, when he's supposed to be winning me over and wooing me, then who knows what he would do if we were together, you know?

And I don't want to risk it.

"I just don't really think there's a need to. That was eye opening," I tell him.

"No, I want to get away from here and just talk."

"Look, you're in a fraternity, and I'm a girl who hates going to parties. There's absolutely no way," I try to keep my voice down so people don't stare, "I got caught up and it's just not going to work. We're not going to work. I realized that it's all different and you got your thing and I got mine."

He kind of just stared at me for a moment, and then shook his head. "So that's it, you're throwing in the towel?

What? He's turning it around on ME? "Troy, you were with some other fucking girl. You lied to me for a reason. We're not even official, so don't turn it around on me, like I'm calling it off. When you decided to lie to me, that's when things went wrong."

"I'm sorry, okay?" he apologizes, "I really am, but that girl... nothing happened, nothing was going to happen and I need you to know that."

"It doesn't matter. This is..." I didn't want to finish it, I was getting really sad just thinking about not hanging out with him anymore, but I know this had to happen. I know we don't mesh. I know our lives aren't going in the same direction. I know things could get worse. "I have to go."

"Gabriella," he attempts to grab my arm.

But I pull it away, "honestly, let's just leave it like this. It's better this way."

And then I walk away.

It is better this way. No screaming, no yelling, no crying.

When I walk to my car, I think about the time we spent together and while it was really great, I always knew there was a possibility that this could happen and that there could be a day where I would be sad about him or sad about how things didn't work out.

And well, here I am, sad about everything. And mad that I let myself fall for him. I let myself think that this could actually work between us.

He's too wrapped up in being a "college guy" right now and I don't need that.

So, I have to walk away from him.

Even though it really, really, really sucks.


	18. Chapter 18

"Are you okay?" Cassandra asks as we're having lunch.

I hear her, but I just don't really feel like answering. I'm too busy moving the ice around in my cup.

After a moment, though, she grabs my cup, puts it right next to her and speaks up again. "My God, Gabriella, it was a fucking month. If you're so miserable, then go talk to him. Straighten things out. He obviously would love to."

"I'm not going to do that because he fucking lied to me and probably wants to fuck other girls!" I take my cup back.

"If he wanted to do that he would have done that. He wouldn't have spent all that time with you NOT fucking you," she argues back.

Good point. It's a really good point. He could have anyone he wants. Girls probably throw themselves at him. I've witnessed waitresses, people at ice cream shops, look at him like he was the dreamiest guy and they want a piece of it. Yet... he was hanging out with me. A girl who didn't even bring up sex. Who would always back away when it got too steamy. So I guess she does have a point, but it's just hard. It's hard to try to question everything.

She continues, "I think he really likes you and I think you're just looking for a way out."

"A way out?" I exclaim, "Cass, he lied to me, he went to some party, and he was with some girl. I'm not making this shit up."

"No, that's not what I'm saying," she shakes her head, "and I don't want to make excuses for him lying to you. But its just, that's not your scene. He knows it, you know it, everyone knows it. He's not going to ask you to tag along. He's not going to tell you he wants to go. He probably just thought it was a little while lie and that's it. Guys can have friends that are girls, you know?"

"Not when you're Troy Bolton, who can have any girl and every girls wants him," I argue back, "besides, a lie is a lie. Who even cares."

Cassandra sighed, rolling her eyes along with it, "do you want to know what he asked me the night we all went to get yogurt land? While you and Daniel were face timing your grandparents who were out of town?"

What? Oh, yeah, I remember that night. Yeah, we stepped away for about five to ten minutes. "What?"

"He asked if you were over Brian."

"Okay?" I'm confused and I really don't know why she's telling me this... like, at all.

"Okay? Gabs, he cares! He asked if you were over your ex and I mean, at the time, if I had to guess, I would guess yes. So I did. And I told him that I'm pretty sure you were. And do you know what he said to me?" she pauses, I think waiting for me to wonder, but I don't say anything. "He said, good, because he's pretty sure you guys have something great and he wouldn't want it to get ruined by you pining over your ex boyfriend."

He... he said that? To Cassandra? My brother's girlfriend? One of my good friends? Why didn't she ever tell me this? "He said we had something great?"

She laughed, "yes! Hand to God. He never told me not to tell you, but I got the feeling he kind of felt lame for asking if you were over Brian, so I just never brought it up. And you know how long ago that was?"

Not long ago at all. The week I thought he was being quiet. We studied, then went to grab frozen yogurt with them.

"But he still lied, Cass. There's really no explanation for that. Why couldn't he just tell me he was going to a party? He's in a fucking fraternity, that isn't a secret. I know it's, like, a rule to go to events and parties and mingle. I couldn't have been mad at that."

"I don't know," she says, "I just know that if he's trying to make things right, it's not to save face, it's not to make it seem like he was being a douche, it's simply because he really likes you."

It's just all too much. I just... in the long run, maybe we won't work out.

But that doesn't mean I don't miss him. Because I do.

I miss him a lot.

* * *

"What's going on?" I pull Peyton to the side as we're waiting to be seated at this restaurant.

Peyton looks over my should and smiles and then looks at me as if nothing's wrong. "Oh, he just brought a couple of friends. No big deal."

A couple of friends?! Her boyfriend brought ONE. ONE friend. And I'm not a fucking idiot. "Peyton, why would you do this? I don't want to date. I don't want anyone. I just want to finish school and get away from every single stupid guy in San Diego. This is so not cool."

"I know like you feel it's a set up, but it's not," she says, which I don't buy, "his friend's visiting from Orange County so I just thought he should tag along."

"Yeah, in hopes that we hit it off!"

"If you guys do, then great," she laughs, "come on, Gabriella. He's a great guy. He graduated last year from UCLA, he's working for an insurance company in Orange County. He has his shit together. And he's really cute. What more could you possibly want?"

I mean, he is really cute. And that feeling of wanting someone is still so fresh in me that maybe I do want a boyfriend. And I'm just pretending like I don't.

But there's no denying there are still feelings there for Troy.

"Whatever," I give in, "just don't make it so obvious this is like a triple date."

"I promise!" Peyton squealed, "even if you don't feel anything, it'll be fun. Come on, get out of your funk, grab a drink, you're fine. You're going to be fine."

Yeah, I know I'm going to be fine. There's no doubt about that. But that doesn't mean I don' miss Troy or anything like that. It doesn't mean that I wish none of what happened, happened, and we could still be hanging out and getting to know each other and having fun.

That's over with now. It has to be.

"He stopped calling, texting, so come on, just let everything go," Peyton tells me, "you're fine."

"Yeah," I smile at her, but secretly, I think I hate that he hasn't tried calling or texting me in over two weeks. Granted, I didn't pick up or reply to yeah, he probably got over it, but a little piece of me wishes he was still trying. "I'm fine. And I'll go into this with an open mind, okay?"

"Thank you," she hugs me before we turn around and join everyone.

And twenty minutes later, we're all settled into our seats and this Patrick guy is sitting next to me, telling me what's good here since he's been.

Which is weird, because he's not even from here.

"You really can't go wrong with the lasagna here," he points to it on the menu so I can look over everything that comes with it, "so good. Any of their pasta dishes. The spaghetti, the ravioli, it's all good. But the lasagna is probably the best. If you're not in the mood for a pasta, the pizza's good. Or their chicken picatta. It's all really good."

"I think I'll go with the spaghetti," I give him a smile and then close my menu, "thanks."

"No problem," he closes his menu, too, "so, you go to UCSD?"

I get the vibe that he thinks this is a triple date and that kind of annoys me because it's the exact opposite of what Peyton made me think it was going to be. But at the same time, maybe I should put myself out there. Maybe it wouldn't hurt t engage in conversation. "Yeah, my last year."

He grabbed his beer and laughed, like he remembered those days. "You're gonna miss it when you're working."

"Well, I have three more years, still."

"Law school?" he picked up on it, "oh wow, where?"

"I'm not sure yet," I reach for my sangria, "Ideally, somewhere in California, but I guess wherever I get in maybe. Or if one school offers me more money. But I've always liked the idea of going to Davis up north. Or Pepperdine in Malibu."

He looked genuinely interested in what I was saying so that was nice. "My aunt's a lawyer. Graduated from UCLA. Hard work, but it pays off."

I hope so. I hope I'm a good lawyer and I'm able to get a job after I graduate. "Well, hopefully I get in."

"I'm sure you will. People don't apply to law school if they think they don't have a chance," he sets his beer down. He makes a good point. "What type of law are you thinking about getting into?"

"I was thinking environmental, but now I'm leaning a bit towards unemployment and all that."

"Oh, for sure, that's cool," he nods, "well, good luck with that."

Now's the time I should ask him what he does. So I do. And while he's explaining it to me, I kind of just zone him out. He has blue eyes and I'm kind of just staring at them, not listening to one word he's saying because I can't stop thinking about a certain someone with blue eyes as well.

Seriously, I can't get him out of my head.

And it's been a couple of weeks. Almost three weeks since I told him to leave me alone and I still think about him.

"You okay?" Patrick asks me with a small laugh after he's done talking.

Fuuuck. "Oh, yeah, yeah, sorry," I try to remember some of the things he's said. Some register and I just hope to God he doesn't ask if I was even paying attention because that'd be really embarrassing. "Well, that's great you got everything going and you're not even a year out of college yet."

Bingo. He was happy with that response and he agreed and said some more things.

But my mind can't see to stop traveling back to Troy.

Ugh. Fuck this.


	19. Chapter 19

"What are you doing?" Hannah asks me as she strolls in my room with Starbucks in her hand, "spring cleaning already?"

It's not even spring so uh no. But yeah, I'm cleaning. I tossed some jeans into a pile that I was going to get rid of and then walked back into my closet to get rid of some sweaters. I have so much clothes, it's ridiculous. I need to give some away.

I grabbed two sweaters I knew for sure I didn't want anymore and tossed them in the pile with the jeans and looked over at Hannah, "just cleaning."

Hannah stepped over the piles I had made on the ground and made her way to my bed, "why?"

"Because I have so much clothes," I tell her, "and I need to get rid of some. Give some to charity or whatever."

"Well, that's very nice of you." Hannah took off her shoes and made herself comfy on my bed. Like she always does. "I probably should have asked if you wanted any, but I only had five dollars, so sorry. I'll ask next time."

"Oh, no, it's fine," I shake my head and get on the ground so I could put these clothes in separate piles as opposed to five, "I had some earlier."

Hannah watched as I put the shirts with the shirts and jeans with jeans all in their own pile. I'm not sure what she was doing here, but I mean, it's not a big deal. We always show up unannounced. That's what best friends do, right? But this kind of felt like she came over to tell me something rather than to just chill on my bed and drink her Starbucks and watch a movie or something, you know? Something's up and I want to know now.

I stopped fixing the piles for a minute and looked up at her, "okay, what's up?"

She gave me a weird look like she didn't know what I was talking about, "what do you mean, what's up?"

"I mean," I push myself up and go over to the end of my bed, "what's up? That look on your face... I know you well enough to know that you have something to say to me, so spit it out or stop looking like that."

"Okay, fine," she sets her Starbucks drink on my nightstand and then looks back at me, looking serious about something, "um. It's about Troy."

Troy? The guy who I've been trying so hard to forget about? Who lied to me? And was talking to some stupid girl at a stupid party? That guy? Ugh. What could she possibly have to tell me about him? I thought I made it clear that I don't want to talk about him. Like, at all. Out of sight, out of mind...

She looked me right in the eyes, took a pause and then spit it out, "he quit the fraternity."

Wait. What? Did I hear that correctly?

Troy Bolton, the guy who's been in that fraternity for most of college, who loves his "brothers," quit? No, I don't believe it. No. She's wrong. She's getting misinformation, I know she is. There's NO way he would quit. That was his life. It's where he lived! No. No way.

"No," I shake my head, "no. He didn't quit. There's no way he quit."

"I went to grab some lunch with Becca and Aaron and when we dropped him off, we went inside for a bit and as we were walking out of Aaron's room, we saw Luke Thompson coming out of what used to be Troy's room and he was all, like, 'ladies... care to see my new room?' so I asked how that was his room, when I thought it was Troy's and he told me Troy quit so he took over. He's in charge now or whatever."

Okay. Hannah wouldn't lie to me. But this is all so weird. It's too weird. He didn't quit. Maybe he just resigned as president. "Hannah, I'm sure he didn't quit the whole thing. Where would he live? Maybe he just couldn't handle being president with this whole internship thing."

Hannah shook her head, "no, I asked Aaron about it after. He quit. He's living in an apartment with his friend now or something like that."

"Why would he quit?" I whispered to myself, but Hannah heard.

"Well, according to Aaron, he basically said that he didn't care for the lifestyle anymore, being president or part of a frat isn't important to him anymore and he just wants to focus on school and his internship," she tells me, even though I wasn't really looking for an answer. It was more of a rhetorical question.

I mean, obviously it's true, right?

But I just... I don't believe it. Sure, he would hang out with me on weekends and obviously miss some of the parties his frat or other people were throwing, but still. It was apart of him. He loves it, doesn't he? How did he just quit like that?

Hannah snaps me out of my thoughts by snapping her fingers, "what are you thinking about?"

Don't know. I honestly don't know what to think. "Han, he quit his freaking fraternity. I don't know what to think right now."

"Well, maybe you should be flattered. Grateful. I don't know," she tells me, "it's obvious he quit for you. Sure, what he did was shitty. But you have NO proof he cheated or anything. He really likes you, Gabs. I can tell. And if this doesn't prove it, then I don't know what will."

"Why didn't he tell me then?" I ask, wondering. "I mean, if he quit for me like she's saying he did, why didn't he tell me? Why didn't he let me know?"

"Maybe, because, I don't know, he doesn't want to make it seem like you have this big affect on him. Or maybe he didn't quit for you. Maybe he did it for himself and I mean, you did make it pretty clear you don't ever want to talk to him."

If he did it for himself... well, that would make me pretty happy. That's actually giving me butterflies right now.

This whole thing is making my head spin. He quit his frat. He's living in an apartment. And I haven't talked to him in three whole weeks.

Oh my gosh. This is all so crazy. I wasn't expecting it.

And I don't know what to even do with this information right now.


	20. Chapter 20

I've been thinking about this for a week now. A whole week of going back and forth on whether or not I should talk to Troy.

But I decided I want to. I want to talk to him.

Because for some crazy reason, a month after this all happened, I still have feelings for him. They're still there. They haven't gone away. And if that can happen when he wasn't even my boyfriend, oh my gosh, I can't even imagine anything else. It's all so crazy to me how strong these feelings are.

So here I am, standing in my dad's office, trying to build up the courage to go find him.

Yes, I am at my dad's work because I don't have another option. I definitely don't want to just call him up and talk to him, tell him to meet me somewhere after ignoring his calls for a whole week. And there's no way I'd want to talk to him at school with a seat of people around us. Nope. And I have absolutely no idea where his new place is so here I am. At his place of work. Being that obnoxious person who bothers them while they're working.

I took a deep breath, walked out of my dad's office and then made my way to where Troy would be.

And yep, he was there. Looking better than before.

"Hey," I walk up to him, more casually than I thought. I seriously thought I was going to stand there before him, choke up and run away. But nope. I didn't. Words actually came out of my mouth. "Um, can I maybe talk to you for a minute?"

Troy looked like he had seen a ghost. After what felt like forever, he peeled his eyes away from me, turned to the person he was talking to before I got there and told him he'd be back in a minute. We walked away and I led him to the conference room where I knew no one was and my dad said we could use that space to talk if I wanted to. He was out for lunch anyway. Most people were at this time. Except a couple. Troy included.

He closed the door behind him, looked out the door for a second and then back at me, "what's up?"

Okay. Yeah. I figured he'd get right to the point. He cares about this job and I'm sure he doesn't want to get caught. But my dad knows so it's all good.

"I just, I haven't talked to you in a while. Um, how have you been?"

"What?" He's looking at me as if I'm absolutely crazy.

And okay. Yeah, sure. I'm definitely acting crazy. I'm acting like I was never mad at him. Like I never told him to get the fuck away from me and to stop calling me. But I don't know how to act. I don't think I'm mad anymore. I just... I want to talk to him. I want to know if this is it between us.

Okay, Gabriella. Think. Thinks about what you want to say. And stop blurting shit out. "Sorry. I don't know how to act. All I know is that you quit your fraternity, which to me is a pretty big deal, and now here I am, trying to figure out why..."

"Gabriella, I'm at work," he interrupts, "you can't just show up at my work and try to talk to me about something in my life when just a few weeks ago, you wanted absolutely nothing to do with me."

"I know, I know," he's right, he's absolutely right, "you're right. I just, I got this information and I can't stop thinking about it. You quit your fraternity..."

"Yeah, I did. Why do you care so much? You pretty much said it was dumb anyway."

I did, yes, but still. It was apart of him. It's not like he was in it for two months and then quit. No. Almost four years. And if he quit because of me, I have a right to know, don't I? I definitely don't want that hanging over me. I don't want him to resent me for it.

Before I could say anything else, he spoke up. "Look, I know what you're getting at. Did I quit for you? I mean, yeah, after I met you, all of it pretty much became secondary and it didn't really consume every single weekend anymore. And you helped me see it's not all about frats, but ultimately I did it for myself. Before you, it was getting to the point where I didn't know why this was a thing. Why it was my life. And everything about it was just complicating things. And I didn't want it anymore. There's your answer, okay? I have to get back to work."

That's it? Fuuuck. I don't want to beg. I don't want to be that girl that begs a guy to get back with them. And I never thought I'd be that girl that would ever go back to a guy who fucked them over, but like Hannah said, I have no proof he cheated on me with that girl.

AND he wasn't even my boyfriend so maybe I took things a bit far. He did try a lot to keep me. That's gotta say something right?

As he was turning around, I knew I had to say something to capture his attention. "I miss you."

Bingo. He turned around, looked right into my eyes, his blue eyes almost too strong to handle. "What?"

"I miss you," I repeat, trying to fight the stupid tears from coming. I don't know why I cry so often. "I actually really miss you. And I have no idea if I'd be here had I not found out about the frat, but what I do know is, I would still be feeling these things for you. And I have no idea what to do."

"What are you saying?" he comes closer to me and I swear, a small smile is appearing on his face. Or maybe because I want there to be one. I don't know.

"I don't know, I honestly don't know what I'm saying," I sound dramatic, I'm sure, "all I know is that I've spent this past week trying to figure out if that's it. If I can go without ever seeing you again and well, here I am..."

This time, he smiled. It was an obvious smile. And it lit up his gorgeous face. "You don't hate me anymore?"

I shook my head, "I never hated you. I was just mad."

"I'm sorry," he tells me, "I should have never lied to you. And it wasn't because I wanted to party. I promise you that. I wasn't even going to go. I just, it sounds like such a bullshit excuse, but spending all this time with you, feeling what I was feeling for you, it scared the shit out of me. And not something that I was necessarily prepared for. And that girl... that girl was nothing. A friend. I promise you."

"It scared the shit out of you?"

He nods, "yeah, that day at my parents house... I realized that it was more than just this physical thing. It was way more mental and emotional and it scared me because I hadn't had that in a while and I didn't know if I had it in me to keep a girl like you, who has everything going for her."

So that's why he jumped off me, went to his room and then started acting weird?

"And it's no excuse for lying, and I'm not trying to get some sympathy, but it's true. It was all just feeling too real and I hadn't had that in so long."

"You could have talked to me," I tell him, "we could have slowed things down. I would have been fine with it."

"I didn't know how to approach it, that's why I was so hot and cold."

True. He was hot and cold for a week. But it's all over now. I want it to be over. This big event that happened- him quitting his fraternity, a fraternity that he was apart of for most of college- is something I can't ignore. It says a lot. It says he cares more about me, more about himself than it. And I know it's not all parties and bullshit, but it's clouded by it. It's about brotherhood or whatever. But the parties are something you just can't ignore.

So, I appreciate it. But you know, if he wanted to go back tomorrow, I'd be fine with it. I have to accept him for who he is and just trust him.

"Let's just put this all behind us," I suggest, "I'm sorry for throwing in the towel when things became a little hard. I'm sorry for shutting you out and ignoring these feelings. Because I think if I wasn't selfish, I could have been fine with the whole thing."

"But I don't want you to be fine with it. I know if things were the other way around, I wouldn't want my girl being around drunken guys. And I also don't want a girl who wants to be politically correct all the time and not step on her boyfriend's toes. I want you to tell me if you don't like something I'm doing. If you have a problem with something in my life. And then we can talk about it."

Really? He wants that? "So, if I gave you an ultimatum, me or your fraternity, you would have been totally okay with that?"

He laughed, coming closer, "ultimatums aren't really my thing."

I smile at him, taking a step close.

"But you are," he grabs me by the waist, "you're what I'm into and I like everything about you and I want to be that boyfriend for you, the one you're not worrying about who's at some party. The one who you can trust and you know he's totally in it with you. Because I've been waiting for _someone like you._"

"Do you have someone who feeds you all these lines?" I look up at him, "because you basically say everything a girl wants to hear."

"No," he shrugs, "but I do mean it, I promise you."

I know he means it. And that makes me so happy. It makes me happy that he wants to make me happy. And I want the same thing for him. "And I want you to feel the same way, too. So from now on, totally open with each other... about everything?"

He smiles at me, moves a bit of my hair out of my face and then pulls me in a little bit closer, "deal."

And then we seal it with a kiss. The most perfect kiss I think we've ever had.

"Now get out of here so I can get back to work," he tells me, "or I'm going to get fired."

"Call me later."

"I will," he kisses me once more.

Gah. This day could not have gone better.


	21. Chapter 21

"Where's Brett?"

Troy grabs his phone from the dining table and joins me on the couch, "he went on some fishing trip."

I laughed as I sat back and kicked my feet up on the coffee table, that I'm allowed to by the way, "he's been talking about going fishing for, like, two whole weeks now. He finally decided to just go?"

"Yeah, took him weeks to find people who were willing to go," Troy laughed, "they just went for two days. He's coming back tomorrow. I don't think the people he went with could handle more than a whole day of fishing, to be honest."

"Bummed he's not here to get in our way," I hike, taking my phone out of my purse.

"Hey, be nice, he's the only one who was willing to take me in."

I laugh as I turn back to him, "I'm kidding. I love Brett. Just feel like I'm dating him at times, too. It's fine, though, he's cute and makes really good waffles."

Troy's smile immediately faded, "don't say that."

"Babe, I'm kidding. It's BRETT."

He couldn't even pretend to be mad. Brett was an attractive guy, sure, but he's so nice, so silly and SO into Troy and i being a couple that there's absolutely no way anything could ever happen. Like, he's always telling us how much he likes us together and thinks we're such a cool couple. So no, if anything were to break us up, it wouldn't be Brett. It just sort of feels like I'm getting a two for one special when I'm come over here.

Troy turned to me, "I'm gonna cook you a romantic meal and you're going to love it."

"Yeah?" I get excited. He's cooked for me before, but it wasn't anything fancy. "What're you going to cook?"

"I'm not sure yet," he tells me, leaning back on the couch and grabbing his phone to text his mom, which I can clearly see, "let's just go to the store and whatever we find, we get, and make? Nothing's coming to mind."

We can do that. I've done that a bunch of times. Driven around aimlessly until I found something I wanted to eat. Never in a grocery store, though.

Same concept, though, right?

"Okay," I sit up, "can we go now? Because I think I'll be hungry soon-ish."

"Yeah, yeah," he says, sitting up, "let me just shoot my mom this text, reply to a work e-mail and then we can go."

I tell him that's fine and then get up to go use the bathroom.

And when I come back a minute later, he's sitting on the couch, concentrated, as he's typing away on his iPhone. And I stand there for a minute, just staring at him, taking him in like I do almost every single time I'm around him because I still can barely believe that this beautiful human being is mine.

He's mine and he has been for the past two months. Three, if you count the month we were just hanging out, dating non exclusively.

And they have been the best three months, ever.

After we made up, everything went back to the way it was- hanging out all the time, feeling so great around him, getting to know each other. And before we both knew it, we were two months in and I couldn't be happier, honestly. He makes me so happy. So happy that every single day, I literally want to tell Hannah how happy I am that she made me go to that party where I met him and every other party my friends dragged me to because I don't think I would be where I'm at today if it weren't for them. Which is, like I've said... happy.

I'm just happy. And so content with life. And everything about it. Troy. School. My friends. My family.

It wasn't hard getting past everything with him because I truly believed every single word he told me. He was just scared. And to be honest, I was, too, which is why I was so quick to jump to conclusions and think he would be "cheating" on me with some random girl at a party.

But I'm so glad we got past everything.

He moved in with his friend Brett, who's actually a family friend that moved to San Diego after he finished up college in Orange County, and is working out here and living by himself so he let him move in. And so I've spent a lot of time here. With Troy. With both of them. And I'm so glad he's living here. It's working out for him. He's happy. I'm happy. We're both happy.

"Babe!" Troy calls out to me a minute later after putting his phone in his pocket and getting up. He turns to me, where I was leaning against the wall. "Oh, didn't know you were there. What're you doing?"

"Nothing," I smile, pushing myself off, "just waiting for you. Are you done?"

He comes over to me, a small smile on his face and grabs his keys from the key hook on the wall, "yeah, you ready to go?"

I don't say anything, I just smile and nod.

And then I grab my purse as we walk out of his apartment so he could go buy groceries to cook me dinner.

COOK ME DINNER. Ah. I have such a catch. He cooks for me, always doing the sweetest gestures, and I never once think there's some underlying reason for it. Other than the fact that he likes me and wants to treat me right. How cool is that? That two months have gone by and I one hundred percent trust him and I'm one hundred percent secure with him and I feel like he'll never do anything to hurt me, intentionally. So cool. I absolutely love it.

"Why does it seem like you're in such a good mood?" Troy asks as we get into his car.

"Because I am," I shrug, leaning over to change the radio station.

"Any particular reason?"

I look over at him with a smile and then put my hand on the back of his head before running it through his hair. I finish it off by running my hand down his face in a playful, girlfriend-y way. Ha. "Why wouldn't I be in a good mood when your incredibly hot boyfriend wants to make you dinner?"

He laughs and shakes his head. He gets so uncomfortable when I call him hot. "You make me dinner all the time."

"It's just everything," I tell him, "life's good."

"Yeah?" He glances over at me, and then reaches for my hand, "life is pretty good, huh?"

It's almost perfect, but perfect doesn't exist, I don't think.

He's close to it, though. And never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be in this place. This place where he's my boyfriend and I trust him and he trusts me and we make each other happy. I just never thought it could actually happen, yet here I am. And I can't stop thinking about it. About how happy he makes me and about how I'm so excited to see what the future has in store for us. And how it's all going to play out.

"It's more than good," I squeeze his hand.

It's great. So great.


	22. Chapter 22

"Put your hair up!"

"I am, I am!" I tell Cassandra, grabbing the scrunchie off of my wrist. "Calm down."

She steps in front of me and opens the container of eggs and takes out four, "sorry, I just need this cake to be perfect. And it won't be if one of your hair gets into it. Also, are you sure I should be making this one? I don't know. Maybe I should make the other one..."

I shake my head, grabbing some hairs out of my face and securing them with a bobby pin, "Cass, relax. He's going to love this cake."

"I know he is, but lately, he's been into chocolate and I don't know..."

"You're going to make this cake because it's fucking delicious and I'm going to help you and my brother's going to love it," I assure her, "he hasn't tried it, but I'm sure it's going to become his new favorite cake."

She sighed, taking a deep breath. And then she rolled up her sleeves and got right to it. "Okay, okay, you're right. You're right. I'm over thinking it."

She is. I absolutely love how much she loves my brother and wants to make him happy and make sure he loves his birthday cake, but it's going to be fine. My brother loves her so much that she could make the shittiest cake and he would say it was great, give her a kiss and be happy with the effort.

"Can you believe I met your brother two years ago tomorrow?" she turns to me after measuring out some flour, "I met him on his 19th birthday in Old Town."

"Oh my gosh, you did," I remember that exact day, "fuck, it's been two years?!"

"I know," she laughed, pouring the flour into the mixing bowl as I grabbed the vanilla extract we needed from one of the cabinets, "there I was, minding my own business with some friends, when you approached me and told me that your brother thinks I'm the most beautiful girl he's ever seen."

I couldn't help, but laugh. My brother HATED me. He was SO mad that I said something to her.

Two years ago, my brother and a bunch of our friends went to dinner at Cafe Coyote for his birthday and across the way, Cassandra and two of her friends were sitting there, minding their own business, having dinner. My brother saw her, thought she was the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen and tried to sneak glaces at her without making it too obvious.

Well, me, being the best big sister, couldn't help but notice that she glanced over quite a few times as well. So I got up, without telling him anything, went over to Cassandra and told him that my brother thought she was the most beautiful girl, ever, and she could do whatever she wanted with that information.

"Would you have said something if I never went up to you?" I ask.

"Not sure," she laughs, "my friends were telling me to because I could NOT stop staring, but once you told me that, it gave me something to work with."

I like to take credit in bringing them together, but they always shrug it off. But in all honestly, if I hadn't said anything, Cassandra probably wouldn't have gone up to him when we were all leaving and hand him a note with her number on it and sign it, "most beautiful girl you've seen."

It was clever and lighthearted and ever since then, I've been their biggest cheerleader.

"I'm glad," I tell her, grabbing a napkin, "I mean, Katie wanted to get back with him so I'm so glad you came in when you did, you're so much better."

"You're the sweetest," she smiles at me.

And then she puts the rest of the dry ingredients in the mixer and sets it off to the side so she could deal with the wet ingredients it calls for. Like eggs, milk, vanilla extra, all of that good stuff. And I kind of just stand here, helping when she needs help.

I grab the eggs because I'm an excellent egg cracker and put them in the bowl and she measures the vanilla extract and throws it in there.

Once all the ingredients were in there, she mixed it together and then set it off to the side. She grabbed the ipad and read to see what else she needed to do.

"So, how're you and Troy?" Cass asks as she goes to rinse her hands.

"We're good," I smile at the thought of it, "actually, we're more than good. We're really, really great."

"Yeah?" she turns her head around. She decided to wash off a few spoons she used while she was at the sink. "That's good. I'm happy for you. Do you guys ever talk about what you both are going to be doing after school ends, like with your law school stuff, or is it not that serious yet?"

It's... it's not that serious yet. Well, I don't know.

I feel like it's serious. For me, anyway. But we just don't talk about the future.

"That's something I hate thinking about," I confess to Cass, "if all goes well, Troy could have a job with my dad and he'll be here full time and I don't know. I've thought about it for sure, but I've never brought it up to him. But I mean, I'm taking a year off. What if I won't even have to think about?"

"Oh, like, you guys will be broken up and it won't even be an issue?"

"I guess, yeah," I shrug. I'm very realistic. I don't want to break up, at all. NO way. But it could happen. "Maybe."

Cassandra nodded and then came back to the mixing bowl and added a pinch of salt. "Well, I don't think you guys are going to break up. Nah, I think you guys are so into each other..."

We are. At least, I'm really into him. And this is where I want to cut her off to confess something. "Cass, I'm pretty sure I'm falling in love with him."

"What?!" She turned around from mixing the bowl of ingredients a bit more, "shut up, are you, you're... serious?! Really?"

"Crazy, right?" I let out a small laugh, "but I really think I am. I know it's only been three months, but we spend all this time together, and I feel like if he were to break up with me tomorrow my heart will literally be cracked in half and I just feel so much for him. It's way more than just liking him."

Cassandra stared at me for a moment before lunging at me and wrapping her arms around to hug me.

I hugged back, laughing at her.

"Oh my gosh, Gabs," she squealed, "it's not too soon. I knew I was in love with your brother a month in. When you know, you know. It took us a while to say it, but we both knew. And I think you both know as well. Go for it. Tell him how you feel. You'll feel so much more secure."

"I don't want to freak him out, Cass. What if he's not there yet?"

"I'm sure he is!" She exclaims. "We've been around you guys. That boy is extremely infatuated with you. I honestly think you guys are on the same page."

There's a possibility we're not. A huge possibility. And I mean, I trust what we have, I know that every day we get a little bit stronger and it's moving forward and we haven't hit a standstill or anything like that, but you just never know where the other person's at. I don't know if he's there yet and if he's not, it's fine, it really is, but if he's not, I don't really want to bring it up. I don't want to tell him how I'm feeling or anything.

Because then it just turns into this big, complicated mess.

I don't want him to think he has to get to where I'm at just because I'm there. I want everything to be natural for him and feel it on his own time.

"How will I even know?" I ask. "Do I just wait until he maybe brings it up, even if it's not for months?"

"You bring it up!" she says with a shrug. "Who even care nowadays who says it first. And if you're worried about him not feeling the same way, well, don't be. Sure, he may not be there yet, but I doubt he's going to make you feel dumb for saying it. He'll assure you he's getting there, too, or something like that."

Maybe. I don't know. It's hard.

For a little while, I thought Brian could be it. That, that was the guy I could spend my life with after college and everything.

So for me to be feeling _love_ for a guy who isn't Brian, it's crazy. And huge. And exciting. And I'm scared about it. I'm scared it'll change everything between us and things will become weird. I don't know if it'll make things better... or worse.

But I think that's a chance I'm just going to have to take because what I'm feeling, I don't think I can keep it bottled up inside of me.

I'm falling so in love with Troy Bolton and I want him to know.


	23. Chapter 23

"Want anything to drink?"

I look up from my phone and turn around to Troy who's in the kitchen, "no, thanks!"

Cassandra's been sending me videos of Katy Perry, who's she's currently seeing in concert with her I was slightly jealous she was there so she told me she'd send me videos. But it's not really making anything better, to be honest. It's just making me want to be there even more.

But whatever, I appreciated them, anyway.

"We're definitely going back to that place soon," Troy tells me as he takes a seat next to me on the couch with his glass of iced tea in hand. "It was so fucking good. I'm so glad Brett told us about it. Did you like it as much as me?"

"Yeah, for sure," I throw my phone to the side and sit back on the couch, "let's go back tomorrow."

"I'm down," he laughs, putting his drink on the table.

We went to this Mexican restaurant in La Jolla that Brett swore by, saying it was the best thing, ever. And it turned out to be true. It was so good. And we had the most delicious dinner which just put us in a really good mood and now we're at his place, relaxing, thinking about watching a movie or something. We have the place to ourselves since Brett went up to Laguna for the night or something like that. Maybe two days. I don't know.

But what I do know is that I so desperately want to tell Troy how I'm feeling.

It's been two and a half weeks since I told Cassandra how I'm feeling, since I've told all my friends how I'm feeling, and well, I'm still feeling it... even more so now since time's gone on. And I'm someone who says what they're feeling almost at all times so it's hard for me to keep this in and not tell him.

I'm just so worried he's not on the same page. I wouldn't be mad because who am I to say you're supposed to be loving me?

It would just bum me out a little bit.

"So," I bring my legs up on the couch and scoot over to him just a bit, wrapping my arms around my knees.

"So what?" He asks me, turning to face me, his blue eyes looking into my brown ones.

I almost forgot what I was going to ask him, what I was going to bring up. This always happens. I take one look into his eyes and everything goes blank. They're just so mesmerizing. And I love them so much. "Um, the first time you saw me, what did you really think?"

Troy was looking at me, I think trying to decide where this question came from. "What did I think?"

"Yeah," I shrug, "we've never talked about it. First impressions."

"I thought it was fucking weird that you were wasting beer like that," he says.

"Babe, come on," I laugh, unwrapping my arms from around my legs and hitting him slightly. "I'm serious. I wanna know what your first impression was."

He straightened himself up a bit and turned his whole body towards me. The smile on his face disappeared and it was replaced with a serious one. "The first time I saw you, you were walking into the kitchen, looking down at your cup of beer with a cute, disgusted look on your face. And then when I walked into the kitchen and saw you, in the light, face to face, I thought you were the most beautiful girl I had ever seen."

Chills. He's giving me chills right now. "Shut up, no way."

"What?" he smiles at me, "why not? I'm serious. I'd never seen you before and that is literally what I thought when I saw you."

"Aw, babe," I lean forward and latch onto his arm, "you're making me blush."

He laughs, shaking his head a bit, "why are you asking me this?"

I'm not sure exactly why I'm asking. I'm just thinking about everything. The first time we met, everything in between and now this... this relationship we're in. It's a good one. And I can't speak for him, but I'm so content and I'm so happy and I hope it goes on for many, many more months.

"I relive that moment a lot," I confess, "even though it wasn't romantic or anything like that. I just think about it constantly. The first time we met. And it's so crazy we went from that... to this. I mean, we barely talked. You said one thing to me and then went back to your party."

"If it looked like you wanted to talk, I would have said more, trust me," he tells me, "but it didn't."

"Whatever," I laugh, thinking about how miserable I also was that night. How much I didn't want to be there. "I guess what I'm just trying to get at is that it's kinda crazy that we're here... even though it wasn't that long ago."

He smiles a bit and nods, "feels that way, though."

It really does. It feels like it's been months with each other. But nope. Four. It's only been four months. "I wanna tell you something."

"You wanna tell me something?" he raised an eyebrow, but told me to go on. "Tell me."

This was it. This was the moment I was going to tell him exactly how I'm feeling. And I'm not a shy person. If I knew he felt the say way, I'd spit it out with no problem. But that's the thing... I don't know how he feels. I don't know if he's even at the point where he sees himself falling in love with me. So, it's kind of nerve wrecking. And it almost makes me want to not say anything. But I just feel like I have to. I want to tell him.

So I take a deep breath inside, without showing it, and then look up at him. His blue ares are looking so intensely at me, waiting for what I'm going to say.

"I'm falling in love with you."

He didn't say anything... for what felt like forever, but in reality, it was like less than a minute, tops.

I'm sitting here, praying to God things don't get awkward, and he's sitting there, sort of just looking at me, I think trying to figure out if this is real life.

And then out of nowhere, he smiles. A big smile. And he scoots closer to me, grabbing my face ever so gently and kisses me. And then he pulls away, his hands still on my face and looks me dead in the eyes. "Feel free to fall even more, because I love you. I'm there already."

"What?" I'm caught SO off guard. I was preparing myself for the worst...

And then this happened. He... Troy, he told me he loved me. He LOVES me. Troy Bolton is _in_ love with me. Holy fuuuuck. Is this real life?

It is. It is real life. And I'm absolutely loving it.

"I love you," he chuckles, "when you know, you know and I definitely know that I'm absolutely, one hundred percent in love with you because every night before I go to sleep, as cheesy as it sounds, I think about you. And every single morning, I think about you. And you just make me so happy, Gabriella Marie Montez. And right now, I can't imagine a day you won't."

"Oh my gosh," I breathe out, putting my hands on top of his, "I love you, too. Honestly. I just... I was so nervous what you were going to say, I made it vague, but no, no, I love you, too. I'm in love with you and I wanted you to know that more than anything."

"Well, I'm glad you told me. I wanted you to know, too, but I didn't want to freak you out."

This moment... this moment right here was everything. IS everything.

I hate comparing the two, but it's hard not to. Brian and I, when we said we loved each other, he said it first. Almost 6 months in. And now that I'm in love with someone else and they're in love with me too, I can tell you that this isn't how I felt with Brian. It was so different. Very different. And same with the only other guy I thought I was in love with, too. Those two don't even compare, even though they lasted longer. It's just so different.

With Troy, it doesn't feel like it's something I'm just saying or something I should be feeling. I mean it. I really and truly mean it. And I feel it in my bones, almost. And it just feels almost permanent.

Because saying I love you means you don't see an end to things.

And that's exactly what's happening here... I don't see an end to things. I couldn't even imagine it being over between us.

"I don't want anything to change between us."

"What?" Troy looks confused. "why would they change? I mean, sure, but in a good way, right? We're all in."

Swoon! "I know, I just mean, I don't want us to fall into a place where we don't even try because we've reached the end goal or whatever."

Troy looked at me a little weirdly, but then let out a laugh. "End goal? This isn't the end goal. And no way. We're three months in. You're getting a little crazy on me, you know that..."

"Sorry," I laugh. I don't really know what I'm saying. Well, I do, but whatever. "Okay then."

"Actually this is just the beginning."

And that's when everything just lined up. When everything changed a bit.

Here is this man, my boyfriend, my wonderful, sweet boyfriend, who I'm in love with. And here I am, holding out. For what? I like sex. I enjoy sex. I'm just more... careful about it, I guess. But I'm in a relationship, a very happy one at that, and it's time. It's definitely time for us to finally do it together.

And I want that to happen right now. Tonight.

"Let's go to your room," I lean forward and tell him, in a whisper.

"What?" He's taken aback for sure. We've never talked about this, but he definitely knew sex wasn't casual for me so he never brought it up. "Babe, we..."

I kissed him to shut him up and then got off the couch and gave him my hand. "I said, let's go to your room."

He didn't even argue it a second time.

We walked hand in hand to his room, where his bed was neatly made, it smelled like coconut courtesy of me, and everything just made so much sense in this moment. Everything was perfect. He was perfect. Our relationship was perfect.

And this moment that's going to happen is going to be perfect.

The minute we stepped foot into his room, I turned around and latched onto him as I giggled. This was really happening. I slowly placed my lips on his while he wrapped his arms around me. and the minute he did, I leaned up and wrapped my legs around him.

And there we were... making out while he was carrying me.

He pushed some hair out of my face as we made out some more and then he slowly walked forward, throwing us gently on the bed. And there he was on top of me, kissing me. Kissing me like I've never been kissed before. On my neck. On my lips. On my shoulders. Everywhere that was visible.

I sat up, gave him a small smile and pulled him in for another kiss. A long one that I wanted to cherish forever.

And when I broke it apart, I quickly took off my tank top and threw it to the floor. Troy's eyes made his way from my face to everything that was now visible. It didn't make me nervous at all. There was a way about it, in the way he was looking, that he was just... taking it in. He smiled, and then looked back up at me and then connected our lips once again. And we kissed and kissed and kissed some more.

Finally, I reached up and took off his shirt for him, breaking us apart. This was it. This was happening. I was going to become the most vulnerable I've ever been around him. I was going to give him myself. And I wanted it to happen more than anything in the world right now.

"Troy," I breath out as his lips are on my neck.

"Don't worry," he immediately takes his lips off of me and backs up. He looks me in the eyes and then lets out a small smile. "I love you."

Never in my wildest dreams would I think this would happen.

But I'm so glad it did, that is it.

Because I'm so in love with Troy Bolton.


	24. Chapter 24

"How's it going with Derrick?"

"Good," Hannah smiles, almost immediately, "it's good. We're grabbing dinner in a bit."

I couldn't help, but smile, too. Hannah has a boyfriend. A boyfriend she really, really likes and I'm so happy for her.

They met about a month and a half ago, so they've really only been officially a little bit, but they're happy. He's a good guy. He graduated last year and is living in San Diego, working in insurance, and so far, so good. He can take her to fancy restaurants and spoil her if he wants. But really, that's not what it's about for her. She hasn't had a boyfriend in quite some time and she's been burned badly, so this is kind of a big deal. And I'm so happy she took a chance.

"Your sister was telling me that he dated her friend?"

"Barely," Hannah laughs, opening a drawer at her dresser and taking out a tank top, "I mean, yeah, they dated. But she's barely my sister's friend anymore. When did she tell you that, right now?"

"Yeah," I laugh, "her and Brady were on their way out. Talked to them for a bit outside. I love her new hair."

Hannah turned around and threw the tank top on her bed and then went over to vanity and grabbed a nail polish to paint her nails. "They were friends, sure, but more like going out friends. But supposedly, she called my sister up and is all, I can't believe she's dating my ex. Like, I have no loyalty to her."

Man, San Diego sometimes feels like a small town. Even though it's definitely not. "She's probably just not over it. Your sister doesn't even care. She thinks Derrick is a good guy, so who even cares what she thinks."

"I don't," Hannah shrugs, "but it's just this weird feeling that I know his ex girlfriend. She's been here to my house. Plenty of times."

"Hm, I don't see the problem."

Hannah comes over and sits on her bed with me and sighs. "It's just this weird feeling. They were together for two years, they broke up two and a half months before he met me and I don't know. Once she found out, it's like, she suddenly wants him back and he says he's over her, but two years? There's history there. A lot. And I think because it's me. Because she knows me. She doesn't want anyone she knows dating him, even if we're not friends or even really friendly. If it was just some random girl, I think she wouldn't even care... well, as much. Like, she wouldn't be trying to get him back."

I get it. I get her worries. "She's trying to get him back? Like, texting him and telling him she misses him?"

"Yeah, pretty much," she shakes her head, opening the nail polish bottle, "I mean, things are good. They're really good. He doesn't engage. In front of me anyway. But there's that little thought in the back of my mind that it would just be easier if they got back together, you know? That's the way he sees it."

"Shut up. No way. Easier? They didn't work out for a reason. Sure, you guys are still getting to know each other, so you have to work at this relationship, but I've been around you guys. He likes you. And I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"Maybe," she doesn't seem convinced, "it's really honestly has only been like this the past three days, since I posted our first picture together."

I laughed. Social media causes so many fights.

And I've been out of town for the past two days so I had no idea what's going on... until now. "Don't worry about Rebecca. Worry about your relationship with your boyfriend. If he wanted to be with her, he would be with her. And if he's stupid enough to go back to a relationship that didn't work out after two years, then I don't think he really deserves you, do you? Its fine. You guys are fine."

She smiled at me and then looked down at her phone that was lighting up with a text message.

"Derrick wants to stop by."

"Right now?" I ask, "sure, do you want me to leave?"

"What?" Hannah looks up at me. "No. Why would you leave? We're hanging out."

Oh, I don't know. To give them some privacy. But then again, this is always how it was. We'd hang out and our boyfriends would be around. That's how it is with Troy. He comes over to my house and Hannah or Peyton or another friend is there and we all sort of just hang. It doesn't need to just be Troy and I.

But I just figured they're still early in their relationship so I thought I'd give them some privacy or something.

"Okay," I laugh, feeling a little bit silly.

'He'll be here in a minute," she says, closing the nail polish bottle, putting off painting her nails until later, "what's Troy up to?"

"He went to play golf with Brett," I get off her bed and go over to my purse to grab my phone. I realized I hadn't checked it since I been here. Ten whole minutes. "Oh, he actually just sent me a picture."

It was of him and Brett. A snapchat of them on the golf course saying they missed me. And I couldn't help, but laugh. "They." But I missed them, too.

Hannah got off her bed and went to apply chapstick and then we heard a knock.

She quickly went downstairs to open the door for her boyfriend and I followed her because I'm not gonna hang in her room by myself. So I went downstairs and there they were, embracing in a hug, and giving each other a kiss hello. So freaking cute.

"Hey, Derrick," I casually say, giving him a smile and heading to the living room where I assure they're going.

"What's up?" is his reply.

And then we all take a seat in the living room and Hannah's little dog Ruby jumps up and sits on my lap. Derrick and Hannah sit on the sofa diagonal from me and Hannah reached for the remote control to turn on the TV.

I've hung out with Derrick a handful of times. He's always been really cool, really funny, and down to Earth. We've even doubled dated a few times.

"Sorry to interrupt your hang out," he says, "I just wanted to talk to you about something."

"What about?" Hannah immediately say up.

And I felt like I shouldn't even be here. I should get up and go to the kitchen or outside with Ruby or somewhere where I can't hear them. Right? Right. Who knows what he wants to talk about. It kind of sounds... serious. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know. I'll just..."

Hannah looks at me like she doesn't want me to leave and Derrick looks like he doesn't care if I'm here or not. So, I have no idea what to do?

"Just tell me," Hannah asks him, impatiently, "what is it?"

"It's not... I'm just, I'm meeting up with Rebecca," he spits out.

Fuck. I really shouldn't be here for this. Hannah looks at me, looks like she wants to punch him in the face, and then looks back at him. Suddenly, she's cool, calm and collected. Sort of. "Oh, really, you're going to meet up with your ex girlfriend? How lovely. How fucking lovely."

Derrick shook his head, "it's nothing. It's just, there's a few unresolved issues and her texts messages lately, I just feel like we should."

"Do whatever you want."

"I'm telling you for a reason," he says, "I could have done this behind your back."

"You're telling me because you'll know I'll find out because she puts everything on social media!" she exclaims back. "But whatever, if you want to go and see if there's anything left you can salvage, go ahead."

Hannah gets up, but Derrick gently grabs her hand. "No, that's not what it's about, Han. It's about closure. It's about telling her how happy I am and how we need to leave the past in the past and just move on. She needs to move on. Because I have. I have moved on. And I'm really happy with you."

Her face softened a bit, and I didn't feel as awkward sitting here. But I think they forgot I was here to be honest.

"You really mean that?" Hannah asks him as she sits back down.

"Yes," he says, pushing some hair out of her face, "absolutely. If I had the choice, I wouldn't meet. But I know these last few days have been weird for you and really, I just wanna put a stop to them. Rebecca can be... passionate. And that's all I'm going for. For closure. Nothing else."

"Okay," Hannah says, giving him a smile. "I'm sorry. It's just... two years, you know?"

Derrick nods, "yeah, I know. But that's in the past. It didn't work out for a reason and now I'm here and I'm happy here."

I felt like I was watching a movie. A real life romantic movie. I fully believe Derrick just needs closure. He's been nothing but great to Hannah and seems to really like her. And I'm all about ex couples getting closure. But I'm so glad this wasn't dragged out and they were able to make up in less than a minute.

"I'll come right back here and we can go to dinner."

"Okay," she tells him, leaning forward and giving him a kiss, "thanks."

Yep. I'm pretty sure they forgot I was there because I was now witnessing them full on kissing.

So I got up, held Ruby in my hands and made a disgusting noise sound. "Ew, you guys, get a fucking room."

They laughed as I walked out and went upstairs to Hannah's room so I can give them some privacy and a little time to hang out before he leaves. I laid in the bed with Ruby and then looked over to her nightstand where I saw the picture of us she had on there since, like, senior years of high school.

And I couldn't help, but smile, thinking about the long way we've come... together.

In that picture, she was dating Ross Miller, who dumped her for Shauna Bryant. And I was casually dating Alex Turner, who couldn't keep his shit together.

Now, though, we have two great guys.

And I couldn't be happier for us... because we were both so happy.

* * *

"Do you know what today is?" Troy asks as we're walking hand in hand downtown.

"Today?" I wonder. He's got the dates mixed up. Our anniversary isn't until the 18th. But that's can't be what he's talking about? "No..."

He laughs as stop for a moment. We're trying to decide where to go for lunch since we're both starving. He looked around for a moment, but then back at me with a small smile. "It's the day we first met at that party."

What? We met today... 8 months ago? No. There's no way he remembers that. I don't even remember that. "Shut up, that's not true. I don't even remember the date. Why would you? I seriously thought you thought it was our anniversary for a second. I was going to be so mad because it's already 12 pm."

"We did meet on this day 8 months ago, I remember the date," he says with a laugh, "I can't believe you don't."

"I would've if something major happened that day, but we barely talked."

"Okay, well I just know because it was a few days before school started," he laughed again.

OH RIGHT. I forgot. Psh, I would have remembered, too, if I thought about it. But aww. The fact that he's even thinking about it is so freaking cute. I have such a keeper. And I can't believe we've been together for six months. We met eight months ago, and we've officially been together for six. It's absolutely crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. They've been the best six months of my life, to be honest. And I hope we have many more months.

I can't stop talking about it, but I feel like I'm the happiest I've ever been in my whole life. Honestly.

I'm almost done with school, I'm looking into law schools already, my family's great, my friends are great, I have the best boyfriend.

There's nothing I can complain about.

"We don't have to do anything for our anniversary, I know you've been busy with school and your internship is getting a bit demanding," I kind of switch subjects. "Not that you were planning anything or whatever, but just throwing that out there."

"We're celebrating," he says, grabbing my hand again, leading us to whatever restaurant he decided on since I gave him the choice to do so.

"Fine." I'm not even going to argue wit him about this.

I do wanna celebrate, obviously. Anything to hang out with him and think about our relationship and how great it's been. It's an accomplishment, right? Being in a relationship, maintaining a relationship, and everything else is work. But it's the best kind of work there is.

We keep walking, I'm not really sure where we're going at this point because we've passed a few restaurant I would think he would want to eat at.

"Babe, where are we going?"

"Just this restaurant," he says, as if it's nothing. As if I shouldn't be questioning.

Before I knew it, we were walking on the beach and heading down to a restaurant I've always wanted to go to, but it's impossible getting reservations. They're ALWAYS booked months in advance. It's pricey and upscaley and it has the best view of the beach. And the best seafood in all of San Diego. It's also very small. The people that usually can get in on any given day are business people. Important people. Not two college kids, you know? Ha.

Troy is taking me to this restaurant? RIGHT NOW?

"You're fucking with me," I tell him as we approach it, "how in the world did you make reservations?"

"Four months ago," he shrugs as if it's no big deal. "do you wanna go?"

"What?" I basically scream, "four months ago? Are you serious? Troy... why, and how did..."

He laughed and brought me around to face him, now holding both of my hands in front of him. "I reserved it for our six months. I know it's not for a couple of days, but you know, I wanted that surprise element and that look on your face a minute ago was priceless. And yeah, yeah, I know your next question... why would I do that when I don't even know if we'd be together because you can't cancel reservations. Well, duh, I love you. I just knew."

God, he was perfect. And it wasn't an act. Nope. The act would have worn off by now, for sure. And I would have figured it out.

He as genuinely the sweetest boyfriend I've ever had. And it's so silly to think that I had him all wrong. Because for the past six months, I've been nothing but happy. And he's contributed to that... a lot.

"I love you," I lean forward and kiss him, "thank you. This is the best."

"Now, let's go eat," he says.

YES. I'm starving. And I cannot wait to eat the incredible food.

And be with my incredible boyfriend.


	25. Chapter 25

"I can't believe it's time to get our lives started."

"Well, you guys," I laugh, "I still have three more years of school, unfortunately."

Leah sighed. "Please don't go anywhere far. I'm going to miss you so much if you decide to go to the East Coast or something. Like, the East Coast is so overrated. They don't have In N Out, Gabs. IN N OUT."

I laughed. Leah was so dramatic sometimes. "I'm trying to go to a school in California, but it's not really up to me. I have to see if any schools give me money or what schools accept me. Obviously, I'd love nothing more than to stay here with everyone, but we'll see."

Leah was about to say something, but my mom came into the kitchen, "Gabs. Come on, you're being rude to all your guests."

Oh right. Leah, Hannah and I have been inside for a little while now. It was just getting a little hot outside for us and we got caught up in conversation.

We pushed ourselves off the counter and headed out to where everyone was.

My family, my friends, my friend's family, Troy, his family, every single person that meant something to me was here to celebrate my graduation from college. And I was so happy they were. It felt so good.

"You want something to drink?"

"Sure," I tell Troy who's holding a beer. I don't want that, though. "Can you just get me a water?"

He nods and goes to the cooler and fetches me a water. And then hand in hand we walk to the table we were sitting on because the food was almost ready to be served, thank God. I was getting hungry.

Troy's family was here because they came to his graduation which was yesterday and we had dinner with them, but they stayed to celebrate with me today because I've gotten incredibly close to them. Troy's celebration is this weekend at his home in Laguna. And I couldn't wait for that and to see his extended family, which I've gotten to hang out with a bunch of times. They're all so great. And I'm happy his family is celebrating with me today.

"So you're taking a year off to study, look into schools?" Jack asks me.

"Yeah, that's the plan," I tell Troy's dad, who's so nice, "obviously, I'd love to stay in California, but who knows."

Carole smiled at me, "yeah, you need a little break."

My mom and dad chimed in and soon enough, they were all talking amongst themselves. Kelsey and Allison were here, too, and they've welcomed me with opened arms. Seriously, I love them. I'm closer to Kelsey since she's in Laguna and I see her more, but Allison and I text a lot. And everything is just so great. It's been, like, eight months and I feel good about it. I feel like they've fully accepted me and I'm sort of apart of the family in some way.

I mean, they are here celebrating my gradation with me. If they didn't want to be, they wouldn't.

After eating, I went over and sat with Hannah's parents. Her mom has been like a second mom to me for a good chuck of my life and I love her to death.

"Thank you for making Hannah and I study for hours when we didn't want to," I tell her, "wouldn't be here without you."

"Oh, of course," she laughs, "I'm so proud of both of you guys."

Hannah graduated with a degree in sociology and she wants to become a therapist. And I know she will. She's the greatest listener of all time and she gives the best advice. And I'm so happy for her.

I had to make my rounds. I sat with my aunt and uncles for a bit, and then moved on over to my cousins. My grandparents were ecstatic for me and kept telling me how proud they were and they can't wait to see me graduate law school.

"I can't believe I'm moving to Los Angeles," Peyton tells me as we're sitting on my bed, taking a small break from everything outside.

"You're going to love it."

"I'm going to miss all of you guys so much, though."

I don't even want to think about it. I'm going to miss HER so much. And Leah. Leah was moving out to Los Angeles as well. "I'll visit you and Leah and much as I possibly can this year. We're going to be friends forever, don't even worry about it. I know we are."

Peyton frowns and then hugs me, "we are. And I'm so happy with how everything turned out."

"Me too," I whisper, hugging her back. I pulled apart and gave her a smile. "I'm happy, you're happy, everyone's happy."

"Everyone's happy," she nods, "and that's all that matters."

She's right. Hannah, Leah, Peyton and I were all happy that we graduated, we're all happy in our committed relationships, and just happy in life. Everything is good and we cannot complain. And I am so glad I made it through college with these four girls by my side. I don't know how I'd survive without them.

We stayed in my room for a few minutes longer and then went back downstairs.

I went outside and hung out with Troy's family a little bit more until they had to leave. They had an hour of a drive home and I'm sure they're tired.

And so Troy and I walked them out.

Once they were gone, Troy and I sat on my porch for a minute, just taking a moment to ourselves.

"I can't believe we've graduated," he says, throwing his arm over me.

"Me neither," I rest my head on his shoulder.

And then I just take a moment to think about everything. The conversation Leah and I had in my room earlier. About law school. Troy knows I'm going obviously. Everyone knows. I don't know where in the world I'm applying yet or anything like that, but law school is set in stone.

We haven't talked about what's going to happen, though. And that's something I've been thinking about for the past few months, to be honest.

My dad offered Troy a full time job at his company, and not just because he's my boyfriend. Ha.

So, he has to stay in San Diego. This is where his job is. And it's such a good job, he'd be crazy to let it go. I definitely don't want him to. He definitely doesn't want to. He took it. He's starting in a couple of weeks. And this is where he's going to be for God knows how long.

"What's going to happen when I go to law school?"

"What?" I think he's caught off by my question. "Well, don't you want to stay local?"

"I mean, yeah, LA, California," I shrug, "but what if I don't get into those schools and the only ones that accept me are on the East Coast?"

"It's a year away," he says, turning towards me a bit, "but it is something to think about. I mean, this is good. This is really good. And I can't imagine it not being good a year from now. So, we'll make it work. There are planes and cars and phones and everything."

True. I'll just really miss him. "But it's not the same as in person."

He nods, "I have to stay here. Or else I'd go wherever you went. That's just not really an option for me, you know?"

"You really would?"

"Yeah," he chuckles, "I love you."

"I love you, too," I tell him, turning towards him. I loved him so much. I fall in love with him a bit more every single day. Our relationship strengthens every day. And I just, I can't get enough of him. I really can't. "We'll figure it out."

He nods, pushing some hair away from my face, his favorite thing to do. "I love you. I'm so proud of you. And I'll always be there for you."

I wanted to cry for some reason. I have absolutely everything I could ever want right here.

I'm one lucky girl.

And I can't believe this is my life.

Troy and I... we're going to be together forever. I can feel it.


	26. Chapter 26

**EIGHT YEARS LATER.**

"James, stop."

"Sorry, mama," my sweet two year old told me, picking up his piece of apple from the floor.

For some reason, he thought it was hilarious dropping them for Lily, our golden retriever, to eat. But it's not. I cut those apples for him because he was hungry so I would appreciate it if he ate them. And not the dog.

I couldn't stay mad at him, though. He was the cutest little boy in the whole world. "Don't eat that one, though."

He threw it to Lily and then went to sit on the couch and continue eating his apple slices while watching Blue's Clues, his favorite show at the moment.

"In 20 minutes, we're going to grandma's, okay?"

"Grandma's?" He says, all excited. He LOVED grandma and grandpa.

I nod and then he went back to watching his show as I clean up around the kitchen. I wash a few plates that need to be washed and put away some dishes that have been washed since this morning. And then I go to the fridge and take out a couple of containers of food that no longer need to be in the refrigerator and empty the food out in the trash. I grab a pan I have on the stove that I used earlier and put it in the sink and wash that along with the containers.

This is my life now.

I am a mom, a wife, and the house keeper.

But I wouldn't change it for the world. It's my most favorite job I've ever had.

"Are you done with your apples?" I ask James when I see that his bowl is now on the floor while he's on the couch, laying around. I pick it up and realize there's one little apple slice left in it. "Do you want it?"

He shakes his head and I walk away behind him before giving it to Lily so I don't look like a hypocrite. Ha.

I wash the bowl, put it away and then dry my hands off and straighten up the kitchen because I hate messes. I like everything as neatly as possible. And then I go over to the fridge and take out the pasta salad I made for the BBQ going on at my parents house in a bit. We were leaving soon. And I needed to get everything ready before having to change James out of his lounging around clothes.

Just as I was about to grab James to change him, my two other babes came strolling into the kitchen/living room.

"Someone's hungry."

"Feed her then," I tell Troy, who's holding our precious little Sienna.

"Yeah, okay," he laughs, handing her to me. There's no way he could feed her. He doesn't have boobs with milk in them. "What time are we leaving?"

I grab Sienna and give her a kiss on the forehead before I go over to the couch and take a seat to feed her. Our baby girl is actually seven months exactly today. "Just as soon as I'm done feeding her. Can you change James? Jeans and whatever shirt."

Troy was eying the pasta salad but he knew better so he backed up and picked James up from behind. "Let's go change, squirt!"

James giggled as Troy held him up like a plane and they disappeared into a room I kept downstairs with extra clothes. It was essentially a playroom. No, it was a playroom. But the clothes and diapers and all of that have slowly taken over. But it will be a playroom once Sienna is out of diapers. It's just so much more convenient having clothes down here.

"Are you hungry?" I ask Sienna even though she couldn't say anything.

But her big, beautiful brown eyes were definitely saying yes. She latched on to my boob as soon as she could.

And we sat there for a little while, enjoying each other's company. She loved feeding time almost as much as I did. It was our time to bond and to be honest, if I could breastfeed forever, I think I probably will. But it just depends on them. I love it, though. It's our time together.

Troy and James came out of the room a little while later, after probably playing with a few toys, and they looked all ready to go.

My handsome boys.

Honestly, James was a little spitting image of Troy.

Troy came and sat by me on the couch and grabbed the remote control to change the channel since James brought out his leggos he was going to play with. He turned to it sports of course. And I sat here admiring my little Sienna, who looked like me. Brown eyes, brown hair. She had her daddy's nose, though. But she looked like me and James looked like his daddy and they were both as perfect as can be.

"You wanna know what James just told me while I was changing him?"

"Hm?" I look over to him, barely wanting to take my eyes off Sienna, but his face is pretty good to look at, too.

He chuckled, "he told me that he loves Sienna and mommy and daddy love each other."

Oh my gosh. I could just melt into a puddle right now.

That is... that is the single most important thing I would ever want my kids to know. Apart from US loving THEM, I would want them to know that their mom and dad love each other very much and that is never going to change. Ever. And he's TWO fucking years old, and he's picked up on that already.

Well, he does have his daddy's brain. That little boy picks up everything, knows so many things, and talks better than any other two year old I know.

"Well, it's true," I tell him with a laugh, "but maybe we should stop kissing so much in front of them."

"No way," he leans over and gives me a kiss, "I love kissing you."

And I love kissing him.

We've been kissing now for about 9 years now. We're married. We have two beautiful kids. And the best life imaginable.

After we graduated, Troy started work with my dad and I studied for the LSAT and looked into all these different law schools. A year later, I was off to law school at USC. And Troy came along for the ride since they had an office out in LA, he transferred there to be with me the whole three years. During my second year, he proposed to me in that best possible way and I, of course, said yes. So the minute I graduated, we got married with our closest friends and family in the most beautiful place in Newport Beach. A short while later, I started working at one of the best law firms in San Diego while Troy came back to work here. We got a house here, a beautiful house that we wanted to start a family in. And within 3 months of our wedding, I found out I was pregnant with James Alexander Bolton. It changed our lives completely... in the best possible way. So within a year of being at the law firm, I had to take some time off to raise this little guy, but I went back the minute I could, trusting my mom to look after James. A year later, I found out I was pregnant again, and this time, we were trying. We wanted them close in age. And we wanted a little girl more than anything... which we got. Sienna Marie Bolton.

And now, we're here. Sienna's 9 months. James is 2. And we're a family of 4.

We're living in San Diego, both working our dream jobs and we couldn't be happier if we tried, I don't think.

"You know what else you love to do?"

"Hm?" he asks, taking his eyes away from the TV and onto me.

"Impregnating me."

The minute those words left my mouth, a blank stare washed over his face. Which I knew it would. I just didn't know how else to bring it up and it popped into my head that, that might be a cute way to do it. To tell him that I'm once again pregnant. And we're having a little baby.

Yep. Pregnant. With our third child. Boy or girl... I have no idea. But I'm pregnant.

I missed my period, I've been feeling a bit sick, and so this morning, I took a pregnancy test and it was positive.

Yes, there's a possibility I'm not, but I got off the pill and we weren't exactly being careful. We weren't trying, but we weren't not trying even though we never talked about not trying, about wanting another child. I always thought if it happened, it happened. And we would be happy. Because we love our kids more than anything in this life and thinking about a third one would complete this family.

But this stare on his face... him not saying anything. Ahh.

"What are you thinking?" I ask him.

"You're... you're pregnant?" he asks me, "are you serious? You took a test?"

"This morning," I give him a small smile as I take Sienna off my boob and put it away. She's done eating. "I know there's a chance I'm not, but no, I know that it's right. I feel it. And I know we never talked about a third kid because I mean, Sienna's not even one yet and I know..."

Troy leaned over and kissed me. Right in font of Sienna. And had his lips pressed for God knows how long.

And then he backed away and a huge smile emerged on his face. "You're pregnant. We're having another baby. I'm going to be a dad of three."

"Yeah." I can feel the tears coming. "We're pregnant."

"Sienna!" he grabs her from me and kisses her little nose. "You're going to be a big sister."

Right away, James turned around upon hearing that and got up and came over to us, making his way in between us, his little elbows holding him up on the cushions. "Big sister..."

We knew what he meant. He was asking what we mean and why she gets to be a big sister. So I pick him up and sat him in between us. "Mommy has a baby in her belly. Sienna's going to be a big sister and you're going to be a big brother... again. Is that okay?"

He nodded his little head and looked at my stomach where I was pointing.

Sienna has no idea what's going on, but I'm pretty sure James does. He's smiling and laughing and grabbing Sienna's hand trying to show her my tummy.

And this right here, is absolutely everything.

"We can do this," Troy tells me over James gibberish and talking to Sienna about the baby.

"I love you so much."

"And I love you," he tells me, leaning over and giving me another kiss. "I've always wanted someone like you, and now I have her, and three kids."

Oh my gosh. My heart can't take it. I've always wanted someone like him, too.

And then he kissed James and Sienna and my heart melted into a puddle because the love he has for his kids is something I always prayed my husband would have. It's everything and more. And I can't believe this is my life. I really, really can't. But I'm so blessed. And I have everything I could ever want.

It's all because I went to a stupid fraternity party.

But oh, I'm so glad I did.


	27. Chapter 27

Well, that's it...

Troy and Gabriella lived happily ever after (:

Thank you all so much for reading. The amount of views I've had is something I never would have imagined!

And the reviews have all been so positive and I'm so happy you guys have liked my story.

I hope you guys will read the upcoming stories that I have planned. I'm in the process of writing, have some done that I'm revising, and am thinking of new ideas. So if you guys want more, I'll be more than willing to put up more because this has been so much fun and I can't wait.

Again, thank you SO much!

Xo

Melina


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